Backward and Upward: The New Conservative Writing

It's hard to say that this is really New Conservative Writing. What makes David Shiflett's musings on his dog's castration or Danielle Crittenden's on drugged childbirth ``conservative''? Maybe ``Writings by New Conservatives'' would be a better subtitle, but then again, are P.J. O'Rourke, Charles Murray and Donald Kagan really ``newer'' than Dinesh D'Souza or Glenn Loury or others who aren't represented? Which isn't to say the writing isn't good: it is. It's just that the title and a cover blurb by William Bennett about ``the most interesting political ideas'' seem misleading. Most pieces are less in-depth analysis than witticism a la the Wall Street Journal's Middle Column. Also, given the rhetoric about self-involved liberals contemplating their collective navel, it's unfortunate that so many issues are addressed through the synechdoche of the individual: Fred Barnes writing on freedom and his four cars or Joe Queenan's (listed in Who's Who as a Democrat, by the way) revelations from his week as a smoker. There are a few more thought-provoking pieces, such as Peggy Noonan's on boomer angst and Bennett's own on ``The Moral Origins of the Urban Crisis.'' Ultimately, though, most of the essays are too short or too popular to give a real sense of the complexities of conservative thought. (Jan.)