A slice of history.

"Read biography," said Disraeli, "for that is life without theory." And to grasp the truth of that remark, read an obituary. Those in the U.S. press, alas, are usually perfunctory at best. But British newspapers -- notably, the London Times and the Daily Telegraph --run long, serious and (sometimes) frank obituaries.

They are among the most popular pages in a newspaper. I used to think this was because elderly readers turned to them in a spirit of cut-throat competition: "Aha. Saw him out."

But there is a deeper reason. Each obituary is the story of an interesting life. Taken together, obituaries over several years constitute the nation's history in recent times -- but a history that is fuller, richer and truer precisely because it lacks any kind of theoretical intent or even method of selection (that is the Grim Reaper's department).

And, just occasionally, a single obituary will give us a panoramic view of society as surely as a great novel does. One such obituary appeared recently in the London Times: of Michael von Clemm, president of Templeton College, Oxford.

Von Clemm was an American, born on Long Island, educated at Exeter and Harvard. He and his wife left the U.S. to pursue postgraduate studies in anthropology at Oxford and, later, to spend two years with a Tanganyikan tribe.

He flirted with notions of journalism and the World Bank, where he thought that his anthropological expertise might be of use --"Giving aid to societies without knowing how the societies work would be like pouring money down the drain," he said -- but saved himself much frustration by making finance his principal career instead. He joined the London office of Citibank where he invented several financial instruments, helping to found the "Eurodollar" market and to establish London as the world's leading financial center.

But his life touched others at many points. He was active in business education at Harvard and Templeton college. He saw the potential of London's derelict East End docks and helped to revive them as a location for offices. He even helped revive British cuisine, borrowing $900 in 1967 to help the Roux brothers start their restaurant business which has since expanded from the celebrated Le Gavroche to a catering empire.

I could borrow more from the obituary about his many interests: Asia, the fine arts, his presidency of the English-speaking Union in the U.S. But enough has been written to show that von Clemm's was a wonderful life of which his wife and daughters must be enormously proud even as they grieve.

For others, the obituary of an idealistic American anthropologist who became an international financier and head of an Oxford college is, in effect, a slice of history. So our relative neglect of the obituary form is significant: another example of the ongoing national lobotomy we call American culture.

Following the defeat of "fast track" (see "The Week"), Rich Lowry describes the new coalition rising against the free-trade consensus, dominant since 1945.

The new coalition calls itself "nationalist." But it is largely a left-wing grouping, dependent on the AFL - CIO for money, "nationalist" on trade alone, and devoutly liberal on issues like multiculturalism which strike at the heart of American nationhood.

It does have some conservative supporters. But their presence can best be explained as the result of a GOP leadership which has failed to satisfy nationalist voters -- as large a slice of the electorate as the Christian Right -- even when it could have done so by taking respectably conservative positions.

Jeremy Rabkin cites one such issue in his important article on the creeping loss of U.S. sovereignty to international bodies. Bilingualism is a second, mass immigration a third. But as long as the GOP refuses to address the concerns of nationalists it will find that they flee to the false prophets of protectionism on the left.