Customer Reviews

The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric

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George F. Will, America's bastion of conservative thought, has at last created an anthology of essays which serve not only to further American Conservatism, but examine the difficulties of it as well. Dr. Will maintains a sharply acerbic, at times sarcastic edge when dealing with liberalism, yet does not shield his fellow conservatives from the same. In this regard, Dr. Will has produced a vastly interesting book which manages to explore the virtues and vices of contemporary American Conservatism.

This compilation of George Will essays from 1994-1997 is a must for any fan of brilliant, concise, enthralling, humorous, insightful, witty, and unmistakably conservative (did I mention ingenious?) commentary. The Woven Figure is brainfood from America's (and hence the world's) foremost intellectual.

Yes, as one person complained, this book is "just" a compilation of Will's previously published columns & essays (with a few speeches thrown in as a bonus). That's a bit like saying that the King James Bible is "just" a compilation of the speeches of a few Hebrew prophets. George Will, with his class, wit, and insight makes Gore Vidal & HL Mencken look pitifully small. Not only is this book insightful, but I read it at the beach, so it's not as difficult as some might think.

This man walks with giants, and his ability to connect so many disparate events into one overarching theme would make Jerry Seinfeld proud. And it's not all the Republican party line, as some might suggest: to one person's comments that the Republican welfare reform of 1995 would lead to thousands of homeless dying on steam grates he says "actually, we'll have to build more grates."

Then this comment, an ispiration, on page 211: "In today's deregulated global economy, with highly mobile capital and an abundance of cheap labor, the long-term prosperity of an advanced nation is a function of a high rate of savings - the deferral of gratification that makes high rates of investment in capital, research, & development, and education. All these forms of social capital are good for society as a whole and are encouraged by high rewards for those who accept the discipline."

Or this, from page 259: "The postwar agenda of unideological `problem-solving' politics erased the distinction between problems that can be solved and conditions that must be endured."

Want a real education? Then read this book, along with "The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays", a collection of Lionel Trilling's greatest essays. You'll learn.

First, a disclaimer. I consider myself a liberal.

"The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric, 1994-1997" is an excellent showcase of columns, written by one who has to be one of our nation's premier intellects.

While my viewpoints diverge occasionally from Mr. Will's predominantly conservative ideology, my admiration for his writing is untarnished by a difference of opinion. Will writes with a keen intelligence and wit that is unburdened by the rancor and dogma that plagues some of his fellow conservative writers (Cal Thomas, for instance).

His treatise on attempts to legislate cats' prediliction for mischief ("The Problem with Cats: Their Catness") is hilarious, and rivals the satirists of the American and English literary tradition.

In the course of his book, Mr. Willtackles multiculturalism, welfare reform, revisionist history, the war on drugs, abortion and a variety of other sacred cows. Liberal and conservative ideologies are equally subject to his well-thought out and skillfully presented arguments.

Conservative and liberal readers alike will find much to think about. Surprisingly, these respective ideologies may share more common ground than we think - I actually caught Mr. Will promoting the same idea espoused by one of my favorite authors, Molly Ivins - who is as far from conservative as is humanly possible.

In "Prepare the Wee Harnesses", contained in this volume, Will says the same thing that Ms. Ivins does in "Somebody Ought to Tell What Welfare Reform Will Do" from her latest collection of columns, "You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You": namely that when it comes to welfare reform, children shouldn't suffer for sanctions placed on adults.

Yes, this is a collection of Will's assorted columns and reviews from the mid-1990's, but the editor (or maybe Will) laid them out so brilliantly, you cannot help but read this cover to cover. To string essays from shallow teen girl magazines to infanticide to partial birth abortion is flawless and will make you think. This collection was written before Clinton's impeachment, but you can almost tell what is coming as Will deconstructs Clinton's policies without getting mean about it. George Will's writing is not ugly and angry, but honest. The same cannot be said of the departing administration (vandalizing the computer keyboards at the White House is a new low in American politics). I recommend this book to conservatives who think they are the only ones out there in a liberal media saturated world, and to liberals, who to often think with their bleeding hearts and not their heads.

George Will's sixth collection of columns and other essays, "The Woven Figure", encompasses the years from 1994 to 1997, when there were intense discussions about the size and function of government following the GOP takeover of Congress in the midterm elections of 1994.

The author opined about a wide range of topics in the mid-1990s, with columns about the coarsening of the culture, education, and multiculturalism, and devoted many columns to books that were published during those years.

Some of the individual people that Will wrote columns about during this time frame include Thomas Jefferson, Paul Wellstone, William Gladstone, Richard Nixon, and Alger Hiss. Will's end-of-year columns for 1994, 1995, and 1996 are here, and this outstanding collection even contains columns about cats, automobiles, and ESPN.

I like George Will, however I find it annoying that he and his publishers would sell a book that is nothing more than reprints of three years worth of columns that have been loosely linked together under several broad themes. Will is a compelling essayist, however I would rather spend money on a book that consisted of new essays than one that is nothing more than reprints of columns that most Will readers have read before.

I'd give this book zero stars if I could. To compare it to the Bible, as one reader had the unmitigated gall to do, is an insult to the great authors of that book. A comparison to Mein Kampf would be more appropriate.

There's nothing here that you haven't seen before, just the rehashed rantings of yet another angry and disenfranchised white man who refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections and launches into ad hominem attacks of the Democratic party in general and the Clinton presidency in particular.

If you like having your thinking done for you by the likes of Will, Rush Limbaugh, et al, then this is the book for you. Those who like to think for themselves should look elsewhere.

The definitive George Will book. That is not a compliment