In these twodevastatingly funny essays, Tom Wolfe examines political stances, social styles,"black rage," and "white guilt" in our status-minded world.

In "These Radical Chic Evenings," Wolfefocuses primarily on one symbolic event: a gathering of the politically correctat Leonard Bernstein's duplex apartment on Park Avenue to meet spokesmen of theBlack Panther Party. He re-creates the incongruous scene and its astonishingrepercussions with high fidelity.

And in "Mau-Mauingthe Flak Catchers," Wolfe travels to SanFrancisco to survey another meeting-ground between militant minorities and theliberal white establishment. This timethe meeting deals with the newly emerging art of confrontation, as practicedby San Francisco's militant minorities in response to a highly bureaucratizedpoverty program.

With his fourthbook, which brought the phrase "radical chic" into the cultural lexicon, Wolfehas never been more unflinching with his patented social criticism.