Letters.

• Position: Letter to the Editor

The Not So Great Generation

Tom Brokaw claims that the greatest generation was the World War II generation. Paul Begala, in the April 2000 issue of Esquire says that the worst generation is the Baby Boomers. ("Tilting at Windmills," June 2000).

In other words, the greatest generation was also the worst generation of parents.

MAUREEN J. EHNSTROM Winchendon, Mass.

Presidential Scope

Allan Lichtman, in his review of The Presidential Difference in the May issue, takes author Fred Greenstein to task for not writing the book that Lichtman preferred had been written. He criticizes Greenstein for examining only presidents since 1932 and argues that many other presidents did important things in our history. This is obviously true, but an examination of the modern presidency is more relevant to contemporary experience and is a widely accepted approach to analyzing the contemporary presidency. Lichtman misinterprets Greenstein's purpose as attempting to "test a typology of presidential leadership." But that was not Greenstein's purpose; he wants to gain insights into how presidents can be effective by examining six categories of relevant presidential performance. That other dimensions of presidential performance might be examined, as Lichtman argues, is true but beside the point.

Another criticism is that Greenstein attempts "to deconstruct presidents as the sum of separate parts." But that is not at all what Greenstein is trying to do; his aim is much more limited. His book is an analysis of some of the important skills and attributes that are essential in the modern presidency. Greenstein explicitly chose not to deal with the political values of the presidents but rather with the means they had at their disposal to achieve whatever ends they sought.

It would be unfortunate if your readers missed this excellent and insightful analysis of the modern presidents because of this review--even if it does not cover all of the dimensions of all presidents in our history.

JAMES P. PFIFFNER PROFESSOR, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY Fairfax, Va.

Final Insult

Your note ("Tilting at Windmills," June 2000) about the insurance industry's abuse of black customers reminds me of why burial insurance was so vital in black communities in the past. Too often the mummified body that wound up on the medical student's anatomy table was African-American, and black people had an understandable horror of suffering this final insult from the white world. A dear (white) friend of mine...