Give Paz a Chance

Give Paz a Chance, by Joseph P. Duggan, includes reflections on the transformation of the media industry; remembrances of political and cultural figures from the author's years in Washington politics, including finely rendered portraits of Robert Novak, Huntington Cairns, and Jeane Kirkpatrick; and observations on Mexico. Included is Duggan's 2009 “Líderes Académicos” lecture at Tecnológico de Monterrey, “Life After Liquidation of the Fourth Estate: New Media versus Gnostic Bureaucracies.” The title essay lauds Octavio Paz's commitment to criticism as a way of thinking with integrity, as ”the imagination cured of fantasies and determined to face the world's realities.”