Founded in 1935, The American Record Guide is America's oldest classical music review magazine. In 1987, when Donald Vroon assumed its editorship, he took on the Herculean task of writing editorials on a vast array of subjects, amassing a wealth of commentary and criticism on not only the foibles and failings, but glimmers of light in American culture. A staunch defender of the highbrow pleasures of good music composed, played, and heard with intelligence, Vroon takes no prisoners in assessing the challenges and failures and possible successes that confront America's future as a nation of...