archive

American manifesto

Stipe Grgas (Zagreb): American Studies as a Contemporary Disciplinary Practice. On Hamilton and Jefferson: Rob Farley and Erik Loomis debate history, politics, and the legacy of the Founders. Seeing America in the spirit of Tocqueville: Chris Barker and Tao Wang interview Harvey Mansfield on Democracy in America. The Self-Made Man: John Swansburg on the story of America’s most pliable, pernicious, irrepressible myth. Julie Beck on the grisly, all-American appeal of serial killers: In trying to make sense of the darkest extremes of human behavior, the public turns murderers into myths and monsters. In Griswold We Trust: David B. Parker on “so help me God” as a case study of American myth-making. Now we know how Americans really feel about their neighbors, the media, and corporations — in seven maps. A.O. Scott on the death of adulthood in American culture. Roger Berkowitz on American exceptionalism: What are we fighting for? The way we were: Just 20 years ago the United States was a beloved superpower with a solid economy and faced virtually no hostile threats — but that’s all gone to hell. Ari Ratner on the era of our discontent: Feeling disillusioned by almost everything? You’re not alone; that angst actually has a name — Weltschmerz, or “world pain” in German — and its history can tell us a lot about our current cultural moment of dissonance and the future of America. Everything is awesome — well, not everything, but America’s looking much better than you think. American Manifesto: We as Americans have the responsibility to live up to our claims of being the greatest country on earth; if we don't step up to the plate, then that's not a claim we have the right to make. 30 years of Americana, through Jean-Pierre Laffont’s lens.