The De-Valuing of America
Mayer, William G.
PROVOCATIVE POLEMICS THE DE-VALUING OF AMERICA The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children William J. Bennett Summit Books, $20, 320 pp. William G. Mayer By most accounts, Ronald Reagan's...
...Compared to similar works by Paul Tsongas, Gary Hart, Paul Simon, and Barney Frank, Bennett's book clearly stands out as more thoughtfully and carefully executed...
...William G. Mayer By most accounts, Ronald Reagan's first choice to become chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities was Melvin Bradford, an English professor from the University of Dallas with ties to Jesse Helms...
...Yet the book does have some substantial strengths, particularly if one regards it less as a historical narrative than as the kind of "what's wrong with America" book that so many political figures have tried to write over the last few decades...
...When his chapters on education come to an end, we have no solid answers to any of these questions...
...As a memoir, Bennett's book is blessedly free of the sort of back-stabbing and revelations that have become an expected part of recent political memoirs...
...What did Bennett actually accomplish besides (as he puts it) using his office as a "bully pulpit" to "broaden the public discussion on education reform...
...From 1985 to 1989, he was secretary of education, where he spoke out on such topics as school prayer, discipline, the teaching of "Western culture," and tuition vouchers...
...In the following chapter, he describes some of the most successful teachers and administrators he met while visiting schools around the country...
...All of these issues receive some attention in this book...
...And then he was "drug czar" (more specifically, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy) from 1989 to 1990...
...Was a voucher bill ever even introduced...
...Bennett left government service in 1990, and he has now written a book about that service...
...What he doesn't do, unfortunately, is to provide a sustained and coherent narrative about any of the jobs he held or the policy initiatives he tried to further...
...And it also offers an interesting glimpse into the mind and career of one of the most capable and effective advocates in contemporary American conservatism...
...From 1981 to 1985, he was chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, where he dealt with questions about government's role in subsidizing artistic and cultural productions, and what kinds of controls, if any, government should place on such monies...
...he was also a considerably more savvy and effective politician than Bradford would ever have been...
...He expresses admiration for both Reagan and Bush...
...He also served a very brief stint as chairman of the Republican National Committee after the death of Lee Atwater...
...and even in the heady conservative days of 1981, that was a little excessive...
...Bennett was not only as conservative as the Reaganites could have hoped for...
...If The De-Valuing of America is unlikely to win many converts to Bennett's cause, it may provide a successful rallying cry for the faithful...
...and as liberals soon discovered, they probably got the worst of the deal...
...Because he does spend so much time talking about the issues he dealt with, and defending the policy stands he took, Bennett gives us only a fragmentary account of his own activities...
...Bennett then provides his own diagnosis of the problem, and defends the need for a more substantive curriculum, greater accountability, and parental choice...
...Bennett was undeniably in a good position to write either kind of book...
...What became of all the initiatives he tried to promote...
...Lots of it makes interesting reading...
...For as often happens with a book that tries to do two things, it never does either one especially well...
...In the two chapters he has written about his tenure as secretary of education, for example, we are first told about the failures of American schools and the resistance and apathy of the teachers' unions and educational bureaucrats...
...So the job fell instead to a little-known philosophy professor named William Bennett...
...But Bradford came under fire for writings which suggested that the Civil War was wrong because it infringed on Southern property rights...
...Beyond the specific anecCommonweal 8 May 1992: 25 dotes and programs, however, there is a central theme that runs through most of Bennett's policy discussions: the importance of values in formulating public policy, and the problems that contemporary liberalism has created for itself by trying to operate as if such values were only an intrusive and unnecessary presence...
...but we learn, in the end, surprisingly little about Bennett's own work in government...
...But those looking for an interesting personal account of life in the Reagan administration will feel equally unrequited...
...26: 8 May 1992 Commonweal...
...he takes a few potshots at liberals like Ted Kennedy—but did anyone expect him to do otherwise...
...He held three major positions during the Reagan and Bush administrations, which had one major thing in common: all were at the center of some of the most controversial and divisive cultural issues of the last two decades...
...Those who are looking for a detailed and original discussion of education, drugs, or any of the other issues Bennett dealt with, will find only a rather cursory treatment...
...The De-Valuing of America is something of a cross between a policy analysis and a personal memoir—and it is precisely this hybrid character that will probably leave many readers feeling slightly unsatisfied...
...None of this analysis is ground-breaking, but it is intelligently and clearly presented...
Vol. 119 • May 1992 • No. 9
