The American Idea: The Best of the Atlantic Monthly

Front Cover
Robert Vare
Crown, Dec 10, 2008 - Social Science - 688 pages
“What is ‘the American idea’? It is the fractious, maddening approach to the conduct of human affairs that values equality despite its elusiveness, that values democracy despite its debasement, that values pluralism despite its messiness, that values the institutions of civic culture despite their flaws, and that values public life as something higher and greater than the sum of all our private lives. The founders of the magazine valued these things—and they valued the immense amount of effort it takes to preserve them from generation to generation.”
--The Editors of The Atlantic Monthly, 2006

This landmark collection of writings by the illustrious contributors of The Atlantic Monthly is a one-of-a-kind education in the history of American ideas.

The Atlantic Monthly was founded in 1857 by a remarkable group that included some of the towering figures of nineteenth-century intellectual life: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell.For 150 years, the magazine has continued to honor its distinguished pedigree by publishing many of America’s most prominent political commentators, journalists, historians, humorists, storytellers, and poets.

Throughout the magazine’s history, Atlantic contributors have unflinchingly confronted the fundamental subjects of the American experience: war and peace, science and religion, the conundrum of race, the role of women, the plight of the cities, the struggle to preserve the environment, the strengths and failings of our politics, and, especially, America’s proper place in the world.

This extraordinary anthology brings together many of the magazine’s most acclaimed and influential articles. “Broken Windows,” by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, took on the problem of inner-city crime and gave birth to a new way of thinking about law enforcement. “The Roots of Muslim Rage,” by Bernard Lewis, prophetically warned of the dangers posed to the West by rising Islamic extremism. “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” by Martin Luther King, Jr., became one of the twentieth century’s most famous reflections upon—and calls for—racial equality. And “The Fifty-first State,” by James Fallows, previewed in astonishing detailthe mess in which America would find itself in Iraqa full six months before the invasion.The collection also highlights some of The Atlantic’s finest moments in fiction and poetry—from the likes of Twain, Whitman, Frost, Hemingway, Nabokov, and Bellow—affirming the central role of literature in defining and challenging American society.

Rarely has an anthology so vividly captured America. Serious and comic, touching and tough, The American Idea paints a fascinating portrait of who we are, where we have come from, and where we are going.

From inside the book

Selected pages

Contents

The Good War STUDS TERKEL JULY 1984
338
What Is It About?
344
For the Union Dead POEM BY ROBERT LOWELL
363
Among the Believers V S NAIPAUL JULY 1981
377
Dan Quayle Was Right BARBARA DAFOE WHITEHEAD APRIL 1993
390
Story of a Great Monopoly HENRY DEMAREST LLOYD MARCH 1881
401
On the Liquidation of the Mustang Ranch by the Internal Revenue Service
415
Walking HENRY DAVID THOREAU JUNE 1862
431

The Captivity of Marriage NORA JOHNSON JUNE 1961
84
The Education of David Stockman WILLIAM GREIDER DECEMBER 1981
92
Broken Windows JAMES Q WILSON AND GEORGE L KELLING MARCH 1982
99
The Roots of Muslim Rage BERNARD LEWIS SEPTEMBER 1990
108
Who Was Deep Throat? JAMES MANN MAY 1992
116
The Coming Anarchy ROBERT D KAPLAN FEBRUARY 1994
127
The Medical Ordeals of JFK ROBERT DALLEK DECEMBER 2002
136
The Fiftyfirst State JAMES FALLOWS NOVEMBER 2002
143
Reconstruction FREDERICK DOUGLASS
151
Strivings of the Negro People W E B DU BOIS AUGUST 1897
163
Letter from Birmingham Jail MARTIN LUTHER KING
170
Thoreau RALPH WALDO EMERSON AUGUST 1862
211
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE ATLANTIC
221
Ode to Lincoln POEM BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL SEPTEMBER 1865
227
Stalins Chuckle IAN FRAZIER
238
Tales of the Tyrant Saddam Hussein
256
American Everyman Warren Buffett WALTER KIRN NOVEMBER 2004
266
Chiefly About War Matters NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE JULY 1862
275
Death of a Pig E B WHITE JANUARY 1948
286
Flying Upside Down TRACY KIDDER JULY 1981
295
The Crash of EgyptAir 990 WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE NOVEMBER 2001
306
Paul Reveres Ride POEM BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
321
Atomic War or Peace ALBERT EINSTEIN NOVEMBER 1947
330
Birches The Road Not Taken and The Sound of Trees
445
The Wellfleet Whale POEM BY STANLEY KUNITZ NOVEMBER 1981
457
Three Days to See HELEN KELLER JANUARY 1933
465
The Blow That Hurts GENE TUNNEY JUNE 1939
476
Blue Highways WILLIAM LEAST HEATMOON SEPTEMBER 1982
482
Lake Wobegon Days FICTION BY GARRISON KEILLOR AUGUST 1985
492
The Last Resort CULLEN MURPHY APRIL 1992
504
The Words That Remade America GARRY WILLS
517
American Civilization RALPH WALDO EMERSON
542
The Duties of Privilege THEODORE ROOSEVELT AUGUST 1894
552
The Ideals of America WOODROW WILSON DECEMBER 1902
558
Contributions of the West to American Democracy FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER
565
Transnational America RANDOLPH S BOURNE JULY 1916
576
Perils of American Power REINHOLD NIEBUHR JANUARY 1932
584
The Illusion of Security GEORGE F KENNAN AUGUST 1954
595
Must We Hate? ARCHIBALD MACLEISH FEBRUARY 1963
601
Poetry and Power JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY FEBRUARY 1964
609
Bystanders to Genocide SAMANTHA POWER SEPTEMBER 2001
619
American Ground
632
Permissions
639
Acknowledgments
645
Copyright

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Page 323 - By the trembling ladder, steep and tall, To the highest window in the wall, Where he paused to listen and look down A moment on the roofs of the town And the moonlight flowing over all.
Page 219 - I so much regret the loss of his rare powers of action, that I cannot help counting it a fault in him that he had no ambition. Wanting this, instead of engineering for all America, he was the captain of a huckleberry party.
Page 322 - Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, Wanders and watches with eager ears, Till in the silence around him he hears The muster of men at the barrack door, The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, And the measured tread of the grenadiers, Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Page 164 - In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys' and girls' heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards - ten cents a package - and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card, refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.
Page 178 - All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great of a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.
Page 178 - I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness...
Page 15 - I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel Since God is marching on.
Page 572 - He is the true history of the American people in his time. Step by step he walked before them; slow with their slowness, quickening his march...
Page 532 - I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the Negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

About the author (2008)

ROBERT VARE is the editor at large of The Atlantic Monthly and a former editor at The New Yorker, theNew York Times Magazine, and Rolling Stone.

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