March 2002			The Natural Appropriateness of Clouds Extraordinary Activist	Letters Sports E Line Books Alumni Passages Classes From the Field First-Person Huskiana
		Greatest Hits An American legend offers twenty years of controversies and insights. By Bill Kirtz The Nat Hentoff Reader by Nat Hentoff (Da Capo Press; Cambridge, Mass.; 2001; 322 pages; $16.50) They call Duke Ellington “beyond category.” Ditto for Nat Hentoff, who, after his Northeastern classes, occasionally hung out with the great bandleader at Boston’s old Savoy Ballroom. An eloquent expert on everything from the blues to urban schools, civil rights to the Constitution, Hentoff, LA’44, H’85, could be describing himself when he calls author Stanley Crouch “blessedly—and bristlingly—free of orthodoxies, whether he is writing about jazz or race or the politics of both, and everything else.” His long-held beliefs make for thought-provoking entertainment in his twenty-sixth book, The Nat Hentoff Reader, a collection of twenty years’ worth of essays, reviews, and profiles from his regular outlets: the Village Voice, the New Yorker, and the Wall Street Journal. The author has gathered writings on a variety of topics, from exposures of various free-speech infringements, to deft portraits of musical icons, to an extended investigation of the educational establishment’s disservice to inner-city children. The book serves as both an excellent introduction to this brilliant disturber of the intellectual peace and a retrospective riffle through his earlier works. The First Amendment’s best friend developed his passion for free speech as a Northeastern News editor fifty-five years ago. His inadvertent instructor: President Carl Ell, who ordered him to stop investigating controversial matters, such as university trustees’ qualifications. The high-honors graduate resigned from the paper in protest—a protest he’s never stopped. It’s crucial to note that jazz, which Hentoff frequently describes as the sound of freedom, triggered his own insistence upon civil rights and untrammeled expression. In this collection, he repeatedly links jazz with civil liberty. In one essay, he points out that his liner notes for a John Coltrane album were secretly distributed in the Soviet Union. Elsewhere, he recalls a conversation with Louis Armstrong in which the great trumpeter shared his disdain for segregationists. Hentoff’s prose is as compelling as his devotion to freedom. Some observations emerge as particularly memorable, such as his comparison of rock-and-blues expert Peter Guralnick to Chekhov, assuming the latter writer had ever filed a report from Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. Switching from subject to subject, Hentoff drops a host of names—and what names! He explores the cultural legacy of Lenny Bruce, the trash-talking social satirist whose landmark victory over obscenity charges came four years after his death. “The Integrationist” takes a look at Dr. Kenneth Clark, the African-American education pioneer cited in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision declaring segregation unconstitutional. Hentoff details Clark’s later travails, which included being called an Uncle Tom for opposing separate dorms, classes, and institutes for black students and for insisting that lowering standards for disadvantaged children assumes their inferiority. In another piece, Jesse Jackson provides an opportunity to discuss race relations. Hentoff himself poses a question to a B’nai B’rith Hillel audience: How many Jews who won’t forgive Jackson’s “Hymietown” slur themselves use the term schwartze? “Is that what we represent?” he writes. “The kind of permanent hatred against Jesse Jackson that anti-Semites direct against us?” Hentoff’s other passion translates into affectionate portraits of key players on the music scene. Frog-mouthed trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, the author recalls, forced an American ambassador to clear the way for an international jam session in Turkey. Gravel-voiced ex-con Merle Haggard, we’re told, channels obscure jazz artists through his twangy guitar. Elsewhere, Hentoff brings to life Robert Herridge, the iconoclastic and now-forgotten television pioneer. The two produced the best jazz program ever to grace the small screen: 1957’s “Sound of Jazz.” When Billie Holiday silently sways to Lester Young’s poignant “Fine and Mellow” saxophone solo, you can, says Hentoff, see their souls. He remembers Ruby Braff, a Roxbury neighbor who played the cornet like a cello and had a part in ending a fourteen-year-old Hentoff’s dreams of clarinet stardom. The author says that “halfway through [Braff’s] first chorus, as I listened to him caress the melody, I knew that although I would always be a listener, jazz would not be my vocation.” And then there are the causes. Hentoff remains a tireless foe of anything he deems a threat to justice, whether from left or right. So, he blasts the American Civil Liberties Union for failing to support handicapped infants’ right to due process, the liberals who tried to justify a deadly Vietnam-era bombing of a university laboratory, and speech codes of all kinds. His credo: Don’t block offensive speech; answer it with speech of your own. In “Multicultural Contempt for Free Speech,” he admires how four black Arizona State University students, outraged by a racist flyer, confronted its author at an open meeting. “At first we felt like victims,” one student said, “but then we learned how to be empowered.” Hentoff hardly exempts himself or his profession from criticism. He recalls an incident on a train when he listened without comment as another passenger voiced a stereotype about Harlem. “Why had I remained silent?” he asks. “Because I didn’t want to think I was a racist?” And much-scorned Internet gossipmonger Matt Drudge wins praise as a “lonely pamphleteer” wise to President Bill Clinton’s lies while bigwig media colleagues fawned. For all its insightful views, The Nat Hentoff Reader would have benefited from additional editorial attention. It contains typographical errors and unexplained references to other articles. No citation information reveals where articles originally appeared. A few pieces repeat or rehash material included elsewhere in the book. None of these faults, however, seriously interferes with the volume’s inherent value. His incisive writing sparkles, and every piece offers up a nugget of truth or a challenge to the reader’s thinking. Small wonder that Hentoff argues his ideas so powerfully. He notes that at age nineteen he learned three cardinal rules from a Boston newspaper editor: “Accuracy, clarity, and don’t let the people you cover con you.” Fifty-seven years later, he’s still batting three for three. Bill Kirtz is an associate professor in the School of Journalism. Holding Pattern: How Communication Prevents Intimacy in Adults by Karen S. Falling Buzzard; Michigan State University Press; 2001 Holding Pattern delves into the psychology of the midlife adult who consistently fails to find meaningful relationships. An associate professor of communication studies, Buzzard creates a compelling study of how our communication styles influence our capacity for intimacy as adults. She traces the problems to three stages of development critical to shaping this ability. Through moving case studies, the author identifies patterns in midlife miscommunications and examines the role of the family in their formation. In this her third book, Buzzard offers a new framework that—in contrast to older views—doesn’t assume intimacy is a natural, automatic process. The Passionate Learner: How Teachers and Parents Can Help Children Reclaim the Joy of Discovery by Robert L. Fried; Beacon Press; 2001 How do children lose their natural curiosity as they advance through school? In this book, Fried, an associate professor in the School of Education, offers lively portraits of children as passionate learners. He then illustrates how a chasm develops between a student’s initial promise and the realities of the classroom. Moving from theory to practical advice, the author offers strategies for parents, teachers, and school systems for rekindling children’s love of learning. The Passionate Learner emerges as an excellent guide for anyone with a stake in sustaining students’ joy of discovery and achievement.