| November 2005
Cultural Preservation |
History | Literature
Cultural Preservation
G1 - Proclaiming Our Presence; Ensuring Our Future
Jamie Hill
American Indian/Smithsonian Institution
A year after the historic dedication of the National Museum of
the American Indian on the central mall in Washington, D.C., its
director, Richard West, a Native American himself, reflects in
an interview as to what the new facility has meant to its principal
shareholders and to the general public. The single greatest achievement
of the museum, he says, has been the fact that it has helped the
average visitor to understand that Native Americans, up and down
the Western Hemisphere, number in the tens of millions. Jamie
Hill is a contributor to “American Indian”, the magazine published
by the National Museum of the American Indian. Order Article
G2 - Boomer Century
Zeitz, Joshua
American Heritage, October 2005, online edition
The first baby boomers will turn 60 years old next year. This
article profiles the baby boomers: “The baby boomers—a generation
born into national wealth and power, raised on the promise of
their limitless potential and self-worth, reared on television
and advertising, enthralled by the wonders of modern science and
medicine—are, for all their differences, a most potent emblem
of the long American Century.” This article profiles the economic,
political and cultural experiences of the boomer generation. It
includes a bibliography of ten of the most important and illuminating
books about postwar America. Fulltext
G3 - Lincoln's Great Depression
Shenk, Joshua Wolf
Atlantic Monthly, October 2005, v296, #3, pp52-68
Abraham Lincoln's melancholy demeanor was familiar to everyone
who knew him; he suffered throughout his life from what would
now be called clinical depression, experiencing several major
depressive attacks in his twenties and thirties, and frequently
talking about suicide. Much new insight has been gained in recent
years on Lincoln's life by researchers studying previously-ignored
reminiscences of people who knew him. Despite his foreboding outlook
on life, he was becoming an increasingly successful lawyer and
politician. The author notes that if Lincoln were alive today,
he would be considered as having a "character flaw",
but in the nineteenth century, gloom was associated with genius
-- a "fearful gift" with the capacity for depth and
wisdom. Shenk notes that Lincoln's lifelong struggle to come to
grips with his depression provided him with vital skills in confronting
adversity, and with insight and conviction that made him a spellbinding
public speaker. The greatness that Lincoln achieved in abolishing
slavery and guiding the country through the chaos of the Civil
War was not by overcoming his depression. Shenk writes that Lincoln's
story is "not of transformation but integration ... his melancholy
was all the more fuel for the fire of his great work."
Joshua Wolf Shenk is the author of the forthcoming book Lincoln's
Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His
Greatness (Houghton Mifflin), from which this article is adapted. Fulltext
G4 - Entertainer
Baker, Russell
New York Review of Books, November 3, 2005, v52, #17, online
edition
"William F. Cody was a frontier go-getter who was good with
horses and mules and good to look at. Until show-business hokum
turned him into 'Buffalo Bill' there was nothing about him to
suggest he would ever amount to anything very special. Youthful
energy and readiness to gallop off on bizarre errands through
dangerous territory came with a frontier boyhood, but in an era
when America was rich in extraordinary achievers, Cody seems to
have been no better fitted for glory than a thousand other high-spirited
youngsters riding the high plains." Russell Baker is
a former columnist and correspondent for The New York Times. Fulltext
Literature
G5 - Still Playing the Game
Stimpson, Henry
Poets & Writers, November/December 2005, v33, #6, pp32-39
"It's really a joy to still write at seventy-three and feel
I am still playing the game. Until I see definite signs of decline,
I'll keep trying… " John Updike has won prestigious awards,
made a good deal of money, and earned acclaim as a major American
writer. Short of the Nobel Prize, he's achieved everything a writer
could dream of. But he shows a refreshing humility and awareness
of the fragility of the business of writing, which depends on
the writer's heart and mind alone. His latest book: Still Looking:
Essays on American Art proves that he's still looking at art,
and literature, with a sharp eye. And still writing." Henry
Stimpson is a writer in Wayland, Massachusetts. Fulltext
G6 -A Writer Who Circles Academe
Cohen, David
Chronicle of Higher Education, October 21, 2005, v52, #9,
pA64-A64
The article presents a profile of author Paul Auster, based on
an interview as well as review of his novels and the articles
and books that have been published about him. His prolific literary
activity has resulted in steadily growing sales and generally
appreciative reviews at home, give or take the occasional critical
mauling. Overseas, particularly in France and Israel, the Francophile,
Jewish-American author enjoys something approaching rock-star
status. A body of international scholarship on his work grows
apace. Fulltext
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