The well-respected and much-fêted editor emeritus of Harper's
magazine and recipient of a National Magazine Award, Lapham presents a collection of previously published articles that range from the funding of think tanks and propaganda outfits to the rigging of the 2004 election and the response to Hurricane Katrina. Overall, this book is a lament for the state of our society and a bitter condemnation of the Republican hold on power and the machinations with which that grip has been cultivated and sustained. Lapham's dense and self-assured style is rivaled only by that of William F. Buckley Jr. in delivering a whopping dose of sanctimony and affectation with each paragraph. Though more erudite than Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly, Lapham's essays are similarly bereft of a sustained line of argument. He also shares their irredeemably dark view of human nature, or at least of Americans, who we learn are "[w]arfaring people, unique in our gift for violence... killing anyone and anything." Above all, he seems to enjoy nothing more than to display his boundless contempt for all those who are not him. (Sept.)
