“We put too much stock in the Oedipal theory of history, my late polymath friend Jim Chapin, the most generous of mentors to historians and journalists, used to argue. More common than children overthrowing their parents, Chapin said, was parents stamping out their children’s revolts. More revolutions fail than succeed. Chapin called this the Cronus theory, after the Titan in Greek mythology who, on hearing that one of his children would overthrow him, swallowed them whole (except, unfortunately for Cronus, Zeus, who, sure enough, overthrew him). In recent weeks, the specter of Cronus has haunted Barack Obama and the Democratic Party.” (05/12/08)