Taking Potshots

It is no news that Russell Jacoby writes well. Anyone familiar with his Social Amnesia or The Last Intellectuals knows that already. Few cultural critics can match him in clarity of expression or the ability to craft a well-turned phrase, and fewer still can leaven their critiques with humor and yet not diminish the impact of what they have to say. Almost no one writing today can presume to assail the prose of others, as Jacoby does in Dogmatic Wisdom, for fear that the same criticism will be turned back on oneself —and with good reason. Jacoby, then, is a rare bird. He is a member of the tribe who nevertheless is not afraid to attack its idols

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