Waiting for the Barbarians [Hardcover]

Lewis H. Lapman (Author), Lewis Lapham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1997

After two centuries of experiment with the theories of the Enlightenment and the volatile substances of democracy, America's leading citizens have come to believe that they have safely arrived at the end of history. Substituting the wonder of money for the work of politics, (a dirty business best left to the hired help), the owners of the nation's capital take comfort in the rising Dow Jones average (up 2,500 points in the last three years) and complacently assume that the engines of immortal oligarchy require little else except the chores of routine maintenance. Unhappily, the political servants of the corporate state find it increasingly difficult to keep their master's house in order. Both the Republican and Democratic parties find themselves adrift in scandal, discredited by their means of raising campaign money, suspected of crimes against the common good, convicted of neglecting the poor, despoiling the environment, raffling off the prospects of the country's long-term future for the promise of a short-term vote. Lewis Lapham received the 1995 National Magazine Award for his essay writing, in which the judges discovered "an exhilarating point of view in an age of conformity". With invective all the more deadly for its grace and wit, Lapham presents the portrait of a feckless American establishment gone large in the stomach and soft in the head. His acerbic remarks on the 1996 Presidential election take into account Steve Forbes' primary campaign, the non-candidacy of General Colin Powell, the comings and goings of Dick Morris, Senator Bob Dole's triumphant return to television as a pitchman for Air France, the building of Hilary Rodham Clinton's Potemkin village in Iowa, and the sublime vacuity of President Clinton's inaugural address. A previously unpublished and substantial concluding piece looks at the fate of indolent ruling classes through history. "Our American political classes, being themselves complicit in the well-financed banditry at large in the world, come and go talking of Hilary Clinton's astrologer and the sins of children's television, about the wickedness of the National Arts Endowment and Bill Clinton's Penis. Their insouciance unnerves me. The barbarism implicit in the restless energies of big-time, global capitalism requires some sort of check or balance, if not by a spiritual doctrine or impulse, then by a lively interest in (or practice of) democratic government. The collapse of communism at the end of the Cold War removed from the world's political stage the last pretense of a principled opposition to the rule of money, and the pages of history suggest that oligarchies unhindered by conscience or common sense seldom take much interest in the cause of civil liberty."

Editorial Reviews

Review

An elegant collection of sardonic and satirical essays . . . Lapham is a moralist in the tradition of Gore Vidal. -- Godfrey Hodgson, Independent

An elegant descant of despair about the state of American culture and political life. -- Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph

In this aptly titled collection of twenty-five exquisite essays, Lewis Lapham depicts an ugly America. These dour yet witty ruminations spare no one and nothing. -- Johanna Berkman, New York Times Book Review

Lapham refuses to cozy down to his audience, much less cozy up to its ignorance and prejudices. Nor will he surrender a jot of his wit, erudition and style. -- Los Angeles Times

Lapham's portraits of his country are astute and his dry wit as sharp as a knife. -- Times

These dour yet witty ruminations spare no one and nothing.... -- The New York Times Book Review, Johanna Berkman

This is a book that must be read. If you can't stomach the philosophy, just lie back and enjoy the prose. -- Marina Benjamin, Evening Standard

We should honour and respect Lapham, and all his works, and buy this book . . . Like Gore Vidal and Christopher Hitchens, in whose ballpark he is worthy to play, the predicament is of the civilised man who has become a relentless chronicler of the awfulness of American politics. -- Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

[Lapham is] a latter-day Mencken or Twain, our last best hope for literary journalism, or any kind of journalism that isn't lazy and shamelessly reverential of money. -- John Cook, Washington City Pages

About the Author

Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper's Magazine, has been praised by Annie Dillard as 'one of our most brilliant writers and thinkers' and was described in Vanity Fair as a journalist 'in the tradition of Mencken and Twain'. He won the 1995 National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism. His previous books include money and Class in America, The Wish for Kings, Fortunes Child, Imperial Masquerade and Hotel America (the latter from Verso).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: Verso; 1ST edition (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859848826
• ISBN-13: 978-1859848821
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read for political hacks everywhere., March 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Waiting for the Barbarians (Paperback)

Most political books are either so slanted and partisan they induce literary vomiting, or so bland and general they say nothing at all. This book is well written, well researched and just funny. Sarcasm in its highest form paralells the very literature it mocks, and this book succeeds in that. To anyone who enjoys the sport of Americna politics, or just wonders where this democracy-on-prozac is headed, I highly recomend it.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligence combined with clever writing, April 27, 2003

By 

R. M. Asmundson "Mark Asmundson - rabid reader" (Bellingham, Wa United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Waiting for the Barbarians (Hardcover)

Lewis Lapham has served for some time in the role of 'a voice crying in the wilderness'. I am often amazed of the breadth of his historical perspective and his currently 'unamerican' willingness, or rather eagerness, to reach below the surface of events and bring to light essences which an informed and engaged electorate need to be conscious of, but will rarely have the opportunity to consider if they rely solely upon the mainstream U S media for information. A Lewis Lapham essay is like a trip to another part of the globe without the jet lag. This collection continues his excellent tradition and the truths contained within, while topical, are timeless in value. If you care about the world and our place in it, and you wish to be challenged to reconsider your assumptions about reality, reading Mr. Lapham is a must.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Flashes of Brilliant Wit & Insight Among Tedious Political Ranting, February 18, 2011

By 

CrimsonGirl "homeschooling mom" (S.F. Bay Area, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Waiting for the Barbarians (Paperback)

I picked up "Waiting for the Barbarians" because it was referenced in another book I recently read (Morris Berman's The Twilight of American Culture). However, while I found Berman's book very thoughtful and interesting, Lapham's tome was anything but. It is a collection of essays, most of which are tedious political rants. Occasionally, Lapham does show razor-keen wit lampooning the vanities of politicians, academics, and celebrities, and the general stupidity of modern culture. I particularly enjoyed the essay comparing late '90's America with the Elizabethan era court. I just wish that Lapham had made the rest of "Waiting for the Barbarians" as brilliant a critique as that particular section. Instead, the bulk of the book is spent rehashing the 1996 Presidential primaries and general election (yawn).

I found the Lapham's essay devoted to bashing Robert Bork's Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline a serious case of the pot calling the kettle black. The criticisms by Lapham of Bork's book fit perfectly "Waiting for the Barbarians" IMHO with the minor substitution of the single word "left-wing" for "right-wing" in the last sentence: "a shrill, vain, and arrogant man...[who] doesn't write nearly as well as the Unabomber, and his jeremiad, which is both less intelligent and less original, relies on secondhand sources and borrowed thoughts rather than on his own original observations....His book reads like a collection of notes taken at a series of academic conferences...substituting dogma and abstraction for coherent narrative and historical fact....So serene is his faith in right-wing politics." Yep, that just about sums up my feelings on most of the essays in "Waiting for the Barbarians".

I was very disappointed in "Waiting for the Barbarians" because to me it represents a squandered opportunity for offering up a critique of a society that, as Lapham puts it, "has gone large in the stomach and soft in the head". He offers frustratingly brief glimpses of keen wit and insight but to get to those, I had to wade through page upon page of tedious and dated political ranting. If I wanted to hear that kind of hot air, I'd turn on Rachel Maddow- at least she would be ranting about current events rather than things that happened 15+ years ago...