Representing America: Experiences of U.S. Diplomats at...

Representing America: Experiences of U.S. Diplomats at the U.N., Linda M. Fasulo (Facts On File: $10.95), looks behind the veils of diplomacy and offers a glimpse at the dynamics of international relations. Through interviews with 33 U.N. diplomats and cogent summaries of U.S. policy since 1945, Linda Fasulo illustrates how politics, despite telephones, telegrams and treaties, still can be strongly influenced by personal initiative. One story in the book, for instance, describes former Sen. George S. McGovern’s impromptu decision to chat with a small Cuban delegation in a back aisle of an assembly room. Fasulo’s summaries are objective, but the book also offers criticism of the Reagan and Carter administrations. While Carter spoke out boldly for human rights, Fasulo writes, his Administration focused criticism on South Africa, Israel and Chile, to the exclusion of problems elsewhere. Former U.N. Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, in turn, admits that the United States has become “out of step with the world” on a number of issues, including the introduction of infant formulas in underdeveloped nations, the Law of the Sea and the International Information Order. “The U.N.,” Kirkpatrick says, “is no more accurate a reflection (of the real world) than a football game is a reflection of the drama of American life.” Fasulo’s chapter on the Reagan years is scanty, however, even in this updated edition.

Cults in America: Programmed for Paradise, Willa Appel (Holt, Rinehart and Winston: $7.95). While cults might march in frightening numbers across midnight movie screens, Willa Appel believes that they have yet to make a resounding impact on American society. To prove her point, Appel takes on such traditional indicators as the Gallup Poll, which reported that the number of American cult members grew from 8.5 million to 13 million between 1978 and 1981. When Appel phoned the groups listed in the poll, she found that full-time membership reached only about 1% of the Gallup total. Yet, even though the Klaxons might be premature, Appel believes that they shouldn’t be silenced. Interest in the cults--if not membership in them--is indeed growing.

The Economics and Politics of Race, Thomas Sowell (Quill: $6.95). Westerners brought slavery to the Third World. Poor Americans will only become more so without programs like affirmative action. The Earth is more factionalized than ever before. Thomas Sowell takes on every one of these assumptions in this lucid, lively work of social criticism. Sowell is skilled at debate, beginning with such arguments as “the Germans may produce markedly better lenses than the French, while the French produce markedly better Champagne than the Germans” before hitting us with controversial conclusions: “That slavery was wrong was one of many Western ideas imported into the Third World.” While this statement is not firmly supported--Sowell claims that tribes in Nigeria and the Gold Coast (now Ghana) had sold slaves to Europe until “the British ended the slave trade in the early 19th Century”--other arguments are grounded in more solid evidence. Sowell doesn’t always stick to the conservative hard line: He acknowledges the existence of “disincentives” in our society and recognizes that “the enduring stigma of hard, manual or menial labor has produced an anti-work ethic handicapping blacks.” Rather than offering handouts, Sowell believes, we should strive to “eliminate disincentives.” While Sowell does not clarify what he means by “disincentives” or explain how we might reduce their impact, he succeeds at hauling some liberal assumptions out of the closet and carefully examining them in a new conservative light.

Love Out of Season, Ella Leffland (Harper & Row: $7.95). Morris and Johanna are adults, but they consistently refuse to accept the safe, secure routine that others in this novel define as adulthood. Instead, Johanna, an artist, and Morris, a womanizer and gambler, relentlessly explore their relationship, wondering why they met each other, whether they want to spend their lives together and how they will cope when it’s over. Morris and Johanna never discover pat answers. They progress, instead, through a series of stages: first resenting their relationship, then accepting it and, finally, fleeing from it. This coming-of-age story is told through Johanna’s eyes, yet no character gets short shrift; even Morris, while compulsive, is depicted as a man of strong humanitarian convictions.

PAC Power: Inside the World of Political Action Committees, Larry J. Sabato (Norton: $4.95). While busily raising and spending vast sums of money for political interests, do PACs encourage conspiracy or facilitate democracy? Opinions in this book vary, with conservatives mostly pro, liberals con. In an extensively documented first chapter, Larry Sabato suggests one reason for the partisan split: Of the top five PACs not connected to corporate, trade or labor groups, conservative PACs raised $25.1 million in 1981-82, while liberal groups collected $2.4 million. In California, an area that Sabato does not profile, support of PACs is far less partisan, in good part because Democrats have used the committees to maintain political strongholds. Nevertheless, with the impact of PACs growing at the national level, Sabato’s detailed, dispassionate investigation is timely.