Insurrections of the Mind: 100 Years of Politics and Culture in America

by Franklin Foer

Overview

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of The New Republic, an extraordinary anthology of essays culled from the archives of the acclaimed and influential magazine.

Founded by Herbert Croly and Walter Lippmann in 1914 to give voice to the growing progressive movement, The New Republic has charted and shaped the state of American liberalism, publishing many of the twentieth century’s most important thinkers.

Insurrections of the Mind is an intellectual biography of this great American political tradition. In seventy essays, organized chronologically by decade, a stunning collection of writers explore the pivotal issues of modern America. Weighing in on the New Deal; America’s role in war; the rise and fall of communism; religion, race, and civil rights; the economy, terrorism, technology; and the women’s movement and gay rights, the essays in this outstanding volume speak to The New Republic’s breathtaking ambition and reach. Introducing each article, editor Franklin Foer provides colorful biographical sketches and amusing anecdotes from the magazine’s history. Bold and brilliant, Insurrections of the Mind is a celebration of a cultural, political, and intellectual institution that has stood the test of time.

Contributors include: Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell, Graham Greene, Philip Roth, Pauline Kael, Michael Lewis, Zadie Smith, William Faulkner, Ralph Ellison, James Wolcott, D. H. Lawrence, John Maynard Keynes, Langston Hughes, John Updike, and Margaret Talbot.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062340405
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/16/2014
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Franklin Foer is the editor of The New Republic. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Editorial Reviews

…provides a spirited intellectual tour of the century.

The New York Times Book Review - Evan Hughes

“Adds up to far more than just a restrospective slideshow of the ‘American Century’. . . . Taken individually, the essays are often prescient or witty . . . . Taken as a whole, they sculpt a model of journalistic sophistication.” — Publishers Weekly

“This collection amply testifies to [The New Republic’s] intellectual heft. . . . A rich anthology.” — Kirkus

“A sparkling anthology. . . . Scintillating reading. . . . A rich volume full of penetrating insights into this country and-for better or worse-its liberal tradition.” — Booklist (starred review)

From the Publisher

2014-07-14
What is liberalism? One magazine has grappled with that question for a century. In 1914, the New Republic was founded by a group of well-heeled, well-educated progressives eager for political and social change. "The magazine," writes its current editor, Foer (How Football Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, 2004, etc.), "was born wearing an idealistic face. It soon gathered all the enthusiasm for reform and gave it coherence, and intellectual heft." This collection amply testifies to that intellectual heft: Writers include Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell, W.H. Auden, Reinhold Niebuhr, Andrew Sullivan and Irving Howe, arguing against "the ludicrousness of political correctness." Organized by decade, the essays ring in on urgent issues: In 1917, for example, philosopher John Dewey argued against "isolated national sovereignty," reflecting the views of the magazine's hawkish editor, Willard Straight, and many liberals who believed war "would stir new feelings of community and connectedness." The 1920s featured essays by Margaret Sanger ("The Birth Control Raid"), John Maynard Keynes on Soviet Russia; and Bruce Bliven on liberals' despair over the Sacco and Vanzetti case. In the 1930s, Edmund Wilson reported on the effects of the Depression. At the time, under the desultory editorship of Michael Straight, the magazine "despised" Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. In the 1940s, Lewis Mumford lambasted the "weakness and confusion and self-betrayal of liberalism." Liberals, he wrote, by opposing America's entry into the second war raging in Europe, "no longer act as if justice mattered, as if the truth mattered, as if right mattered, as if humanity as a whole were any concern of theirs: the truth is they no longer dare to act." Nearly 40 years later, Daniel Moynihan, considering "The Liberals' Dilemma," quoted Renata Adler: "Sanity…is the most profound moral option of our time." As this rich anthology shows, the debate over the meaning, viability and political effectiveness of liberalism continues—and not only in the pages of the New Republic.

Kirkus Reviews

08/11/2014
New Republic editor Foer's sampling of essays published in the magazine over the course of its history spans major American wars, disastrous presidential administrations, and seismic political shifts, but adds up to far more than just a retrospective slideshow of the "American century." Taken as a whole, the book's selections, organized by decade, represent the magazine's mission to serve as a mouthpiece and conscience for liberalism. Writers from Rebecca West, to Virginia Woolf, to Leon Wieseltier explore a political philosophy which founding editor Herbert Croly termed "the attempt to mould social life in the light of the best available knowledge and in the interest of a humane ideal." Foer provides brief intros that set the context for each piece, and also sometimes acknowledges the magazine's failings, such as the support it offered Stalin in the 1930s. The rigorous analysis and thoughtful philosophizing otherwise displayed by the politically-minded essays extends to cultural criticism that includes Nabokov on translation, Margaret Talbot on Martha Stewart, and Zadie Smith on Kafka. Taken individually, the essays are often prescient (Andrew Sullivan's 1989 gay marriage piece "Here Comes the Groom") or witty (Philip Roth's "Positive Thinking on Pennsylvania Ave"). Considered as a whole, they sculpt a model of journalistic sophistication that honors George Orwell's dictum, in "Politics and the English Language," that "to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration." Agent: Elyse Cheney, Elyse Cheney Literary Associates. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A sparkling anthology. . . . Scintillating reading. . . . A rich volume full of penetrating insights into this country and-for better or worse-its liberal tradition.

Booklist (starred review)