NEW BOOK COLLECTING KEY WRITINGS ABOUT DEMOCRACY
HAD UNUSUAL START DURING WORLD WAR II

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec. 19 -- A crash course in history
and politics for military trainees at the University of Virginia at
the height of World War II has resulted more than half a century
later in a unique new book about democracy.
	The book, "Charting Democracy in America:  Landmarks from
History and Political Thought," just published by American
University Press and edited by retired U.Va. professors Alfred
Fernbach and Julian Bishko, is the first anthology to collect key
documents and writings about democracy from its origins with Greek
political thought through such modern American classics as the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" civil rights speech.
	With some 643 pages of selections from such figures as
Aristotle, Locke, Montesquieu, Paine, Jefferson and Washington,
through 20th century U.S. presidents up to President Clinton's first
address to the United Nations in the post-Cold War era, the book is
intended for a general readership both here and abroad, as well as
being a supplement to government courses and a handy reference on
the fundamental documents of democracy.  It has drawn considerable
advance praise from international affairs scholars and diplomats.
	Fernbach, professor emeritus of political science, and
Bishko, history professor emeritus, between them taught thousands of
students over a total of some 80 years at U.Va.  Their new anthology
provides an introductory essay on democracy and concise background
on the seminal documents they include.
	"Our aim basically is to show that democracy is an old idea
but one that has been evolving and is still evolving and that works
differently in different countries," Fernbach said.  "We hope people
will find the book useful."
	Their collection of landmark writings on democracy had a
distinctly American beginning, Bishko recalled.
	In 1943 about 200 handpicked cadets of the 71st Army Air
Force Technical Training Detachment were stationed at U.Va. for
intense preparation in physics and math to become wartime
meteorologists.  As part of their broad training as officers the
military required they also understand American history and
political ideas.
	Fernbach and Bishko, assigned to teach that section, decided
not just to talk about the cornerstones of democracy but to teach
the documents themselves, Bishko said.  They mimeographed scores of
writings, from Cicero on law to the Declaration of Independence, and
discussed them in class six days a week for a year.
	"It was a load of fun -- and work," recalled Fernbach, who
retired in 1986, a few years after his colleague.  The recruits
never forgot their intense educational experience and have returned
to U.Va. periodically for reunions.
	After the war the stack of mimeographed documents sat
gathering dust on a shelf for close to 50 years.  Then one day about
four years ago a U.Va. international law professor, John Norton
Moore, was invited to a judicial conference in the emerging
democracy of Russia.  Wanting some recommendations on reading
material about democracy for his Russian hosts, Moore asked Fernbach
for suggestions.
	Fernbach replied, "I have just the thing for you," and
pulled down his and Bishko's old mimeo sheets.  Later Moore and
others encouraged the retired professors to update their material
and collect the writings in a book.
	It turned out that they had a lot more work to do.  "It
suddenly hit us that nearly a quarter of U.S. history has occurred
since World War II," Fernbach said.
	Thus they added alongside the ideas of such figures as
Tocqueville, Thoreau, George Mason and Woodrow Wilson dozens of new
writings related to democracy, including the Supreme Court's Brown
v. Board of Education decision outlawing racial discrimination in
schools and its New York Times v. United States decision affirming
freedoms of the press in the Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers case; a
whole body of writings on women's rights; United Nations documents
such as the Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty; and newly
elected Czech President Vaclav Havel's Address to the U.S. Congress
after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
	But their book looks back to its origins half a century ago
in its closing item, a brief quotation from a speech by British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill:
	"Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form
of government except all those other forms that have been tried from
time to time."
###
December 18, 1995
	For interviews Alfred Fernbach may be reached at (804)
293-4078 and Julian Bishko at (804) 980-9230.  Review copies of
"Charting Democracy in America" are available from American
University Press for reporters at (800) 462-6420.  For additional
perspectives you may wish to call U.Va. international law scholars
John Norton Moore at (804) 924-4748 or A.E. Dick Howard at (804)
924-3097.