The American Idea, as if you asked: We strive to be truer or freer or smarter or richer or perhaps just happier than our own parents were. The American Idea is about generations in reaction and reinvention. Dollywood values: What the Backwoods Barbie's theme park says about America. Talk About G-generations: Members of the "Generation After" are the ones who grew up in the shadows because the previous generation was blocking the sun. A review of Iconic America: A Roller-Coaster Ride through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture by Tommy Hilfiger. Dixie Chicking: An article on post-9/11 blacklisting in the entertainment industry. A review of: Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies by M. Stanton Evans. Of Lies, Catfights and Rock 'n' Roll: Official lies have always been with us. But our political life—as depicted by Maureen Dowd, among others—has been poisoned by the even more insidious unrebuttable lie. We are the Thought Police: An excerpt from What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics. Why Orwell matters: Four writers on the relevance of Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" in a post-9/11 world.
