The Tragedy of American Compassion.

• Author: Massing, Michael

The Tragedy of American Compassion. Marvin Olasky. Regnery Gateway, $21.95. Politicians invoke it. Urban dwellers suffer fatigue from it. Fundraising letters appeal to our sense of it. The eighties are scorned for lacking it. The term "compassion"- like "democracy" and "fatfree"--is gradually losing its meaning through overuse. Seeking to recover that meaning, Marvin Olasky, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas, traces our changing understanding of the concept from colonial days. "The word 'compassion,' which once had the power to compel action, is now merely a rhetorical device trotted out regularly by Republicans as well as Democrats," Olasky writes in his introduction. By recapturing the vision of an earlier era, when our concept of compassion "was not so corrupt,'' he believes, "many lives can be saved." It's an innovative idea, and Olasky's swipe at both political parties promises a clear-eyed, even-handed approach.

From the start, though, the warning flags of partisanship abound. In his acknowledgements, Olasky cites the Heritage Foundation (for providing financial support and a "stimulating research and writing environment"), Milton Friedman, and God, "who had compassion on me almost two decades ago and pushed me from darkness into light." The preface is by conservative scholar Charles Murray, who made a name for himself by attacking welfare mothers.

In the opening chapter, which discusses colonial attitudes toward chaffty, Olasky writes most approvingly of those with the most skinflinty of views. In 1698, we learn, Cotton Mather warned his congregation, "instead of exhorting you to augment your charity, I will rather utter an exhortation . . . that you may not abuse your charity by misapplying it." In the 18th century, volunteers distributing aid to the poor diligently checked the character and circumstances of each applicant to make sure that "alcoholism was not contributing to the general misery."

By the 19th century, however, relief groups tried to do "too much too fast" and did not "sufficiently discriminate between the needy and the lazy." 01asky points to one study showing that during the recession of 1873, more than half the money spent on soup kitchens in New York supported "reckless bums" and "imposters."

By the time it enters the 20th century, The Tragedy of American Compassion has become a neoconservative morality tale, full of liberal activists working to hijack the concept of compassion and twist it to...