The 1982 elections are just a few weeks away, and American voters once again are being subjected to barrages of bombast from all sides of the political spectrum. And if Campaign "82 is dominated by the economic issue of Reaganomics, it is also infused with the emotional issues stirred up by the religious right—abortion, creationism, prayer in public schools, tuition credits for private and parochial schools being among them. Religion has, of course, been a part of our history ever since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. The Founding Fathers thought religious freedom was so important that they guaranteed such freedom under the First Amendment to the Constitution. Still, if freedom has been the ideal for religion in America, intolerance has too often been the norm. The Know-Nothings of the 19th century are one example and robed descendants of the Ku Klux Klan another. Bigotry had much to do with the defeat of Democratic—and Catholic—presidential candidate Al Smith in 1928, and "dry messiahs" of the clergy were instrumental in bringing about the disastrous adoption of a constitutional amendment prohibiting alcohol. Yet whatever the role of religion in yesteryear, two factors led to the rise of the religious right today—television and the development of direct mail campaigns. Foremost among the "prime time preachers" is the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and some liberals see Falwell and his Moral Majority as a threat to the freedoms Americans have long cherished. Historian Stephen J. Whitfield does not share "the fears rampant in liberal precincts of imminent danger for the republic," even though he does confirm "the logic of the liberal criticism of the New Right." A member of the American Studies Department at Brandeis University, Mr. Whitfield is particularly concerned with the intersection of politics and ideas in the 20th century. His book, Into the Dark: Hannah Arendt and Totalitarianism, published in 1980, won the first Kayden Prize awarded by the University of Colorado for the best book published in the humanities by an academic press. Mr. Whitfield is now working on a book about critic Dwight Macdonald.

A prominent contemporary of Mr. Macdonald is Malcolm Cowley, and he is the subject of David E. Shi's essay. Mr. Shi is especially interested in Cowley's role in making New York City the literary center of America during the 1930's. After receiving his doctorate in history from the University of Virginia, Mr. Shi joined the history department at Davidson College, where he is currently teaching. He is the author of a critically acclaimed biography of Matthew Josephson published last year by Yale.