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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
H.L. Mencken was a man who firmly believed that "[m]en are surely not at their worst when they say what they actually think, even if it is shocking to their neighbors," and 80 years after some of these essays originally appeared in newspapers and magazines, his writings are still hard to resist. Mencken's wit and breadth of knowledge are apparent throughout this collection, but he is at his best and most timely when his targets are politics, the American character and the "militant Puritanism" that, according to him, shapes them both. His skewering of democracy as a system-"this fundamental assumption that a group of idiots, if only its numbers be large enough, is wiser and more virtuous than any conceivable individual who is not an idiot"-is well reasoned enough to provoke a weeklong debate about such favorite (and still hotly controversial) Mencken topics as big government, mob rule and the legislation of morality. A few of the essays included here do not hold up well, such as "The American: His Language"; others, like Mencken's essays about Baltimore and San Francisco, now read like charming period pieces rather than insightful social commentary. Still, the variety in this collection (including a prescient piece on the emergence of the independent film industry) highlights just how many things about America and Americans made H.L. Mencken laugh, wax indignant or at least pick up his pen.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"This little book ...could revive H. L. Mencken's reputation."
See all Editorial Reviews
H.L. Mencken was a man who firmly believed that "[m]en are surely not at their worst when they say what they actually think, even if it is shocking to their neighbors," and 80 years after some of these essays originally appeared in newspapers and magazines, his writings are still hard to resist. Mencken's wit and breadth of knowledge are apparent throughout this collection, but he is at his best and most timely when his targets are politics, the American character and the "militant Puritanism" that, according to him, shapes them both. His skewering of democracy as a system-"this fundamental assumption that a group of idiots, if only its numbers be large enough, is wiser and more virtuous than any conceivable individual who is not an idiot"-is well reasoned enough to provoke a weeklong debate about such favorite (and still hotly controversial) Mencken topics as big government, mob rule and the legislation of morality. A few of the essays included here do not hold up well, such as "The American: His Language"; others, like Mencken's essays about Baltimore and San Francisco, now read like charming period pieces rather than insightful social commentary. Still, the variety in this collection (including a prescient piece on the emergence of the independent film industry) highlights just how many things about America and Americans made H.L. Mencken laugh, wax indignant or at least pick up his pen.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"This little book ...could revive H. L. Mencken's reputation."
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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see his reviews, vice crusade, new puritanism, moral endeavor, vice commission Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, San Francisco, New England, Mark Twain, Anti-Saloon League, Civil War, Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins, Russian Jew, American Negro, American Puritanism, Bill of Rights, Billy Sunday, Charles Street, James Lane Allen, New World New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
see his reviews, vice crusade, new puritanism, moral endeavor, vice commission Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, San Francisco, New England, Mark Twain, Anti-Saloon League, Civil War, Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins, Russian Jew, American Negro, American Puritanism, Bill of Rights, Billy Sunday, Charles Street, James Lane Allen, New World New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
- Puritanism As a Literary Force by H. L. Mencken in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Front Matter (3)
- Susan Lenox: Her Rise And Fall by David Graham Phillips on page 148, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Leaves of Grass (Bantam Classics) by Walt Whitman on page 42, page 173, and Back Matter
- Civilization In The United States (BCL1 - U.S. History) by Harold Edmund, Ed Stearns in Front Matter, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- A Tramp Abroad (Penguin Classics) by Mark Twain on page 150, and Back Matter
See all 100 books this book cites
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
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37% buy the item featured on this page: Mencken's America$17.21 |
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31% buy A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing $14.93 |
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16% buy The Vintage Mencken $11.16 |
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10% buy The American Language $37.80 |
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