3 GREAT READS FROM THE CLAREMONT INSTITUTE

Captive Nations
A review of Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, by Anne Applebaum

In 1952, Hans-Joachim Geyer, a low-level courier secretly working for the West German Federal Intelligence Service, was captured in East Berlin by agents of the Stasi, the spy network of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Geyer, a former member of the Nazi Party, had little difficulty in switching allegiances. According to now available Stasi files, Geyer quickly admitted his work on behalf of the Federal Republic and went so far as to offer up his services to the GDR. With his assistance, the Stasi was able to roll up over 100 West German spies operating in East Germany and seize hundreds of valuable documents. So helpful was Geyer (whose work lasted only a year before his cover was blown) that the GDR paid a large pension to his widow after his death.

Blood-soaked History
A review of Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962, by Yang Jisheng

It took Mao Zedong's New China about four years to carry out the "Great Leap Famine," the greatest single crime in the history of the world. The term itself, now widely used, derives sardonically from the Great Leap Forward, a campaign begun in 1958 to transform Communist China into a modern industrialized state in less than a decade. Central to this campaign was a massive reordering of China's countryside, especially the forced movement of the hundreds of millions who lived there into so-called People's Communes. Mao's agricultural policies mirrored those of his inspiration and mentor, Joseph Stalin, whose ruthless rural collectivization campaign in the 1930s caused more than 10 million deaths in the Soviet Union. In the People's Republic of China, over the decades, historians and demographers have come to estimate the deaths caused by Mao's collectivization campaign at about 40 million.

The Higher Education Hustle
Political Correctness and Higher Education

The term "politically correct" entered the American vocabulary in 1991, following a widely discussed New York magazine cover story on higher education, and has become applicable beyond the campus. The Associated Press, for example, announced this year the banishment of "illegal immigrant" from its stylebook. One linguist suggested "unauthorized migrant" as a more respectful substitute. Jay Leno, who is not politically correct, preferred "undocumented Democrats." Perhaps "joggers without borders" will catch on.