Word: trenchant
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Died. Richard Howard Stafford Grossman, 66, brilliant British leftist; of cancer of the liver; in Banbury, England. The burly intellectual, famed for his trenchant criticism of British society and politics, went to Parliament as a Laborite in 1945, later served in Prime Minister Harold Wilson's first Cabinet and as leader of the House of Commons. From 1970 to 1972, he edited the New Statesman, the influential left-wing weekly to which he had contributed for years...
...most trenchant criticism, however, comes from old academic colleagues who question his intensive use of personal diplomacy. The University of Chicago's Hans Morgenthau worries that Kissinger will be constricted in whatever else he does by an obsession with preserving detente. Harvard Professor of Government Nadav Safran, who otherwise gives Kissinger's performance high marks, suggests that "perhaps a less interesting Secretary of State might delegate authority so that various people would be running various problem areas simultaneously...
...brief, perceptive introduction, Middleton places Stone in the tradition of 18th century English pamphleteer William Cobbett. Like Cobbett, Stone combines a trenchant critique of existing conditions with a nostalgic vision of his country in which the nation was true to its ideals. Middleton writes, "Few people contrive to remain faithful to the vision proffered by the very forces which are busy betraying it," and Stone is most remarkable because his "devotion to the liberal vision and to America has never allowed him to pull his punches...
Despite the occasional tendency to be overearnest in his analysis of certain events, Crouse has a gift for constructive, compassionate criticism. He shows a willingness to fraternize with the boys on the bus, to understand them on their own terms, but it is his trenchant criticism of the institution of which they are a part that makes this book superb...
...surrender of key Cabinet posts to the Communists and about France's internal stability if the leftists push for radical measures. For that reason, the U.S. is inclined to agree with Pompidou's prediction that France faces "chaos" if the Gaullists lose. Raymond Aron, however, has a trenchant comment: "If Pompidou keeps telling the French, 'It's us or chaos,' he is likely to provoke the reply, 'Let's take a peek at what chaos looks like...