With a Happy Eye But . . .: America and the World, 1997--2002 [Hardcover]

George F. Will (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2002

In the introduction to this, the seventh collection of the newspaper and magazine columns, book reviews, speeches, and occasional writings of George Will, he notes the bemusement with which some may react to his choice of title. W. H. Auden wrote his poem "The Horatians "from which the following lines are taken: " We can only do what it seems to us we were made for, look at this world with a happy eye but from a sober perspective."

The poem was written in 1968. It was a year notable in the United States for assassination, riot, war, and political violence unseen for the preceeding 100 years. If humanity could be instructed to view that world with a happy eye, can America today do any less, faced with the clearest and most coherent expression of national unity since the Second World War?" With a Happy Eye But ." . . is both a clear description of the attitude that informs these collected pieces (and the attitude of their creator) and an admonition to Americans.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fifth collection of conservative pundit Will's columns (The Morning After, etc.) shows his usual erudition (the title comes from Auden), but they seem more outdated this time around. The terrorist attacks figure prominently in an overwrought introduction ("The scream of the incoming aircraft was a howl of negation"), but most of the "current events" addressed the battle between gay activists and the Boy Scouts, pressure on members of the European Union to accept the euro, disabled golfer Casey Martin's fight to use a golf cart on the pro tour feel like curious relics of a pre-September 11 world, and his longstanding complaints about the wickedness of Oliver Stone and the decline of civilization on liberal college campuses come across as cranky grumblings. He gets in plenty of digs at Bill Clinton: "not the worst president the republic has had, but... the worst person ever to have been president"; he even finds occasional fault with George W. Bush (though the worst adjective he can think of to describe Bush's initial waffling over the Enron scandal is "Clintonian"). The final chapters are heartfelt memorials to Will's father and to columnist Meg Greenfield, but one wishes that Will had applied the level of sustained reflection they show to a fuller analysis of one or two subjects, such as the contested 2000 election or the war on terrorism, instead of the jumbled impressions offered here.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This book is the seventh volume of Will's collected columns, essays, and addresses to be published since 1978. Given his fame as a syndicated newspaper and Newsweek columnist (he won the Pultizer Prize for commentary in 1976) and as a television personality (he has served as an analyst with ABC News since the early 1980s), readers come to this work with high expectations that are not disappointed. In this book, Will describes contemporary Americans as "naive optimists." Within the context of the Clinton years, the 2000 elections, and the shadow of 9/11, he opines on the inevitability of war, the necessity of the death penalty, the need for the military to remedy moral values, the fundamental flaws of a (liberal) intelligensia "too short on certitude," and his impatience with a society "too squeamish to call evil by its right name." An accomplished essayist, Will provides a model for writing that dismisses alternative viewpoints, and though his writings are valuable to readers across the political spectrum, they may leave liberals spluttering. Recommended for general collections in high school, public, and academic libraries.
Jean S. Caspers, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, OR
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; First Edition edition (September 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684838214
• ISBN-13: 978-0684838212
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,156,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Will, October 7, 2002

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: With a Happy Eye But . . .: America and the World, 1997--2002 (Hardcover)

George Will has written a lot of books, and this is definitely ... one of them.

What that means is that if you already have an opinion of George Will, "With a Happy Eye, But..." probably won't change it much one way or the other. His politics are much the same. His long-time concerns are still in the front of his mind. And his voice (self-assured if you like it, pompous if you don't) is as distinctive as ever. Will's fans will want to add this book to their collection. If you're not a fan, the columns here collected may not convert you.

This title helps cement Will's reputation as America's leading spokesman for (as I once heard Buckley described) "conservatism of a sort." The columns include his argument that "Capitalism is a Government Project" (p. 222), his endorsement of General Sherman's war of extermination against the South as a model for defeating terrorism (p. 71), and his defense of "the seamlessness of cultural memory" (p. 184). I was glad to see his memorable and important "Clinton's Legacy: An Adjective" (p. 237) printed here in its entirety, not in the bowdlerized form in which it appeared in several newspapers.

Given the time span this book covers (1997-2002), I was surprised there aren't more columns about the three central events of the era: impeachment, the 2000 elections, and September 11, 2001. Will wrote a lot more about them at the time, of course, but only a select few columns made the cut into this book. As in any collection, a lot of ground is covered, from politics to pop culture. Over time, many of the "news hooks" these columns are based on will fade -- if they haven't already faded -- from memory. But even then, the real value, Will's ability to articulate his principles, will stand out all the more.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good, September 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: With a Happy Eye But . . .: America and the World, 1997--2002 (Hardcover)

The Publishers Weekly editorial book review printed here by Amazon shows how the extreme hard core left wing detests the popularity of books with a straight-forward, consevative view. However, this book will join Coulter's and Hannity's as a best seller and for good reason - it is well written and provides a view of recent events that is not presented by ABC, CBS, NBC or many daily newspapers. This is an interesting and well written book for anyone, regardless of your political perspective. Recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars America at the Turn of the 21st Century, June 24, 2009

By 

Eric Mayforth (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With a Happy Eye, but... : America and the World, 1997--2002 (Paperback)

George Will's seventh collection of columns covers the period from 1997 to 2002, and the opening essay that Will wrote describes the prosperous "holiday from history" that Americans enjoyed until 9/11/01, when the terrorist attacks injected big, consequential questions back into our political discussions.

This collection includes more than just columns--there are a couple of commencement addresses, as well as a great speech Will delivered at Princeton concerning cultural literacy and the importance of reading.

As has been the case for decades, ethical and moral questions have abounded in American life, and some of the columns the author wrote around the turn of the century addressed issues such as stem cell research, privacy, abortion, and school prayer. Will devoted several columns each to education and to the free speech issues involved in the fight over campaign finance reform.

American conservatism lost a giant in 1998 with the passing of Barry Goldwater, and Will wrote a column remembering the Arizonan's contributions to conservatism and to the nation. Some of the other people that Will devoted columns to during these years include Princess Diana, Vince Lombardi, C.S. Lewis, John Adams, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and James Madison.

Five of Will's year-end columns are here as well, rounding out yet another great collection of writings by one of American conservatism's indispensable thinkers.