Backward and upward

the long version

The side that is winning the culture wars is the side that is having the most fun. And this lively and elegant anthology strongly suggests that conservatives are having a ball - and that they're terrific writers besides. The pieces collected here show that conservatism is as much about personality as it is about ideology. The wit, acuity, and sheer delight these writers take in slaughtering sacred cows make this collection so appealing that even liberals may find it irresistible. Among the selections: Mark Helprin, admitting (to a class of West Point graduates) that what he did during the war in Vietnam was draft-dodging and wrong; Danielle Crittenden, with a manifesto for unnatural (or, at least, drug-assisted) childbirth; Andrew Ferguson, lampooning the movement to create sensitive men; Joe Queenan, intrepidly pushing the envelope of New York City's anti-smoking laws; and Florence King, on the elitist art of insulting. All this plus contributions by George Gilder, Charles Murray, James Q. Wilson, Rush Limbaugh, Peggy Noonan, Robert Bartley, William Kristol, and many, many more.