An Incomplete Education - 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn't

3,684 THING
LEARNED B

From
Magd
and A
S to
the Fr
Barry
to Ste
PLU
FRO

THIRD EDITION

An

Incomplete

Education

GS YOU SHOULD HAVE
BUTPROBABLY DIDN'T

Chaucer to Chechnya . . . Mary

dalene to Machiavelli . . . Héloise

Abélard to Sacco and Vanzetti . . .

71 . . . the B a b y l o n i a n Captivity to

ree-Market Economy . . . Mme. du

to Matthew Barney . . . Ramapithecus

ephen Dedalus . . . Norma to N A F T A

S: HOW TO TELL KEATS

OM SHELLEY

JUDY JONES &
WILLIAM WILSON

U.S.A. $35.00
Canada $47.00

Wh e n i t w a s o r i g i n a l l y p u b l i s h e d i n 1 9 8 7 , An
Incomplete Education b e c a m e a s u r p r i s e b e s t s e l l e r .
N o w this instant classic has been completely
updated, outfitted with a whole new arsenal of indis­
pensable knowledge o n global affairs, popular cul­
ture, economic trends, scientific principles, and
m o d e r n arts. Here's y o u r chance to brush up o n all
those subjects you slept through in school, reacquaint
yourself with all the facts y o u once knew (then
promptly forgot), catch up on major developments in
the world today, and become the Renaissance man or
w o m a n y o u always knew you could be!

H o w do y o u tell the Balkans from the Caucasus?
What's the difference between fission and fusion?
Whigs and Tories? Shiites and Sunnis? Deduction
and i n d u c t i o n ? W h y aren't all Shakespearean c o m e ­
dies necessarily thigh-slappers? What are transcen­
dental numbers, and what are they g o o d for? What
really h a p p e n e d i n P l a t o ' s c a v e ? Is p o s t m o d e r n i s m
dead or just having a bad-hair day? A n d for extra
c r e d i t , w h e n s h o u l d y o u u s e t h e a d j e c t i v e continual a n d
w h e n s h o u l d y o u u s e continuous?

An Incomplete Education a n s w e r s t h e s e a n d t h o u s a n d s
of other questions with incomparable wit, style, and
clarity. A m e r i c a n Studies, Art History, Economics,
Film, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Sci­
ence, Psychology, Religion, Science, and World His­
tory: Here's the bottom line on each of these major
disciplines, distilled to its essence a n d served u p with
consummate flair.

In this revised edition you'll find a vitally expanded
treatment o f international issues, reflecting the seis­
mic geopolitical upheavals of the past decade, from
economic free-fall in South America to Central
Africa's world war, and from violent radicalization in
the Muslim world to the crucial trade agreements that
are defining globalization for the twenty-first cen­
tury. A n d don't forget to read the section A Nervous
American's G u i d e to Living and Loving o n Five C o n -

(continued on back flap)

(continued from front flap)

t i n e n t s before y o u a n s w e r a p e r s o n a l a d i n t h e Interna­
tional Herald Tribune.

As d e l i g h t f u l a s i t i s i l l u m i n a t i n g , An Incomplete Edu­
cation p a c k s t e n t h o u s a n d y e a r s o f c u l t u r e i n t o a s i n g l e
superbly readable v o l u m e . T h i s is a b o o k to celebrate,
to share, to give and receive, to pore over and browse
through, and to return to again and again.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

J U D Y J O N E S is a freelance w r i t e r w h o lives i n P r i n c e ­
ton, N e w j e r s e y . W I L L I A M W I L S O N was also a free­
lance writer. Wilson went to Yale and Jones to Smith,
but both have maintained that they got their real edu­
cations in the process o f writing this book. William
Wilson died in 1999-

Jacket design: Beck Stvan
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An IncomP R A I S E F O R

"AN A S T O N I S H I N GA M O U
—The New

"IT IS P R E C I S E L Y T H E B O O K T H A T
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history. . . . Cheerfully, su
— San Francisc

"MEMORIZE THIS B O O K A N D Y O U
AND ARCANE TERMS WITH TH

(or they) know what they're talking about
memories of your favorite courses,
favorite theories, favorite
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[It] brings y o u 1 0 , 0 0 0 years o f i n f o r m
where Watteau went whe
—New York

"ARTICULATE A N D IRREVERENT
definitions, and historic information
Judy Jones and William Wil
you should've lea
—Esqu

"THIS B O O K
—The Atlanta

ISBN 0-345-46

mplete Education

UNT OF INFORMATION."
York Times

T I'VE ALWAYS W A N T E D W I T H O U T

N T E D IT It's for p e o p l e w h o have

cific areas o f culture and intellectual

bversively anti-academic."

co Chronicle

U C A N DROP NAMES, ALLUSIONS,
H E B E S T O F T H E M , whether you
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favorite professors, favorite books,
philosophical paradoxes."

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T O R E A N D B U Y An Incomplete Education
mation. Imagine the power of knowing

en the lights went out!"
k Daily News

T , c r a m m e d with facts, figures, drawings,
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l s o n . . . tell y o u everything
rned but didn't."
uire

GETS AN A+."
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6890-2

IN
E

NCOMPLETE
EDUCATION





~AN

INCOMP

EDUCA

3,684 Things You Should Have Lear

JudyJones and W

PLETE-

ATION

rned but Probably Didn't

William Wilson

Copyright © 2006 by Judy Jones and the
Copyright © 1987, 1995 by Judy Jones a

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballan
Group, a division of Random House, In
and a revised edition was published in 19
Publishing Group, a division of Random

BALLANTINE and colophon are registere

Portions of this book originally appeared

Grateful acknowledgment is made to th
material:

City Lights Books, Inc.: Excerpt from "
copyright © 1964 by Frank O'Hara. Rep

Farrar, Straus ôc Giroux L L C and Faber
For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell, c
Britain administered by Faber 6c Faber L
Giroux LLC and Faber 6c Faber Ltd.

Henry Holt and Company LLC and J
Group Ltd. : "Nothing Gold Can Stay" a
edited by Edward Connery Lathem, cop
copyright © 1975 by Lesley Frost Balla
Britain administered by Jonathan Cape L
don. Reprinted by permission of Henry
print of The Random House Group Ltd

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.: Excerpt f
by Ted Hughes, copyright © 1963 by Te
lishers, Inc.

Maps by Mapping Specialists Ltd.

Page 702 constitutes a continuation of the c

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publ

Jones, Judy.
An incomplete education.
Includes index.
1. Handbook, vade-mecums, etc. I. W
AG105.J64 1987 031'.02 86-915
ISBN: 0-345-46890-2

Printed in the United States of America

www.ballantinebooks.com

9 8765

Text design by Beth Tondreau
Photo editor: Cheryl Moch

e Estate of William Wilson
and William Wilson

ntine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing
nc., New York. This work was originally published in 1987
995 by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House
m House, Inc.
ed trademarks of Random House, Inc.
d in Esquire.
he following for permission to reprint previously published

"The Day Lady Died" from Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara,
printed by permission of City Lights Books, Inc.
r &c Faber Ltd.: Excerpt from "For the Union Dead" from
copyright © 1960, 1964 by Robert Lowell. Rights in Great
Ltd., London. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus 6c

Jonathan Cape Ltd., an imprint of The Random House
and excerpt from "Directive" from The Poetry of Robert Frost,
pyright © 1923, 1947, 1969 by Henry Holt and Company,
antine, copyright © 1951 by Robert Frost. Rights in Great
Ltd., an imprint of The Random House Group Ltd., Lon­

Holt and Company L L C and Jonathan Cape Ltd., an im­
d.
from "Daddy" from The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath, edited
ed Hughes. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Pub­

copyright page.
lication Data

ilson, William, 1948-1999. II. Title.
572

on acid-free paper

ACKNOWLEDGM

The authors would like to thank the following, all o
ergies, insights, and expertise (even if only three o
the word "deadline") to the sections that bear their
Owen Edwards, Helen Epstein, Karen Houppert, D
Stephen Nunns, Jon Pareles, Karen Pennar, Hen
Judith Stone, James Trefil, Ronald Varney, Barbar
and Mark Zussman.

MENTS

of whom contributed their en­
of them know the meaning of
r names:
Douglas Jones, David Martin,
nry Popkin, Michael Sorkin,
ra Waxenberg, Alan Webber,





CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction to the First

July 1994 ix

Introduction to the Origin
March 1986

C H A P T E R ONE American Studies

CHAPTER TWO Art History 64

CHAPTER THREE Economics 124

CHAPTER FOUR Film 148

CHAPTER FIVE Literature 186

CHAPTER SIX Music 266

CHAPTER SEVEN Philosophy 304

CHAPTER EIGHT Political Science

CHAPTER NINE Psychology 426

CHAPTER TEN Religion 460

C H A P T E R E L E V E N Science 500

C H A P T E R T W E L V E WorldHistory

Lexicon 636

Index 679

v

Revised Edition,
x

nal Edition,
xiii

2

4

4

6

4
342

6

570





INTRODUCTION
FIRST REVISED

JULY I994

W hen this book was first published in the s
the air. Well, not literacy itself—almost ev
using "lie" and "lay" and seemed resigned to never
dred pages of Remembrance of Things Past. Rather
story, an idea to rant, fret, and, of course, Do Som
snarling denunciation of Americans' decadent p
the American Mind, followed closely by E. D. Hir
Literacy, of names, dates, and concepts—famous i
five thousand of them in the first volume alone—
call-in talk shows and spawned a whole mini-indu
sive, competent, and clever guides to American his
ence, which most people not only hadn't retain
understood to begin with. At the same time, the
over expanding the academic "canon," or core cur
the standard works by Dead White European M
W. E. B. Du Bois, a worthy but humorless brou
was the high point—by mobs of Stanford studen
Western Civ has got to go." Emerging from our r
up with our portable typewriters and the working
Education for most of the decade, we blinked, l
thoughtfully, "Boy, this ought to sell a few books."

Now, back to revise the book for a second edi
much the old 'hood has changed in just a few years
at warp speed in the 1980s, yet we never had to w
we wrote on Friday might be outdated by the fol
did stop to consider whether "Sean and Madonna"
reference on the Monday after that). When we w
chology was, if not exactly a comer, at least a legit
this was, remember, in the days before Freud's
beyond repair and when plenty of people apparen

TO THE
EDITION,

spring of 1987, literacy was in
veryone we knew was still mis­
r getting beyond the first hun­
r, literacy as a concept, a cover
mething about. Allan Blooms
philistinism in The Closing of
rsch's laundry list, in Cultural
if often annoying touchstones,
—fueled discussion groups and
ustry of varyingly comprehen­
story, say, or geography, or sci­
ned but also didn't feel they'd
ere was that rancorous debate
rriculum, to include more than
Males, plus Jane Austen and
uhaha characterized—and this
nts chanting, "Hey hey ho ho,
rooms, where we'd been holed
g manuscript of An Incomplete
looked around, and remarked
"
ition, we're astonished at how
s. We thought life was moving
worry, in those days, that what
llowing Monday (although we
" would still be a recognizable
wrote the original edition, psy­
timate topic of conversation—

reputation had been trashed
ntly still felt they could afford

X I N T R O D U C T I O N TO

to spend eleven years and sev
free-associating their way from
as distinct from movies, likewi
too), until that appeal dissolve
auteur theory and the rise of t
time—and so can you, if you'r
film by Truffaut or Bergman o
release of another Disney anim
more of a paranoiac's game t
well-defined opposing teams
playing pieces (all those coun
one side or the other), and a
stantly being redrawn.

One thing hasn't changed,
behind us at the multiplex or
gotten so much as a hair more
dopier, with someone like Nor
of current events by someone

But then, why would it h
really—as all those literacy-an
about five minutes back in 19
about amassing information f
dardized test, whether admin
party, or your own conscience,
cable stations, CDs, telephone
than we can possibly sort thro
information we don't know wh

What we do need, more th
up-close-and-personal relatio
with the right stuff, past and p
and every crackpot with an ur
seems less like bourgeois indul
quality time with the books, m
one reason or another, manage
difference between good and e
we can't, in some roundabout
nant twelve-year-olds, the mot
with their rottweilers, who've
Sally Jessy, it's just that it's nice
ond opinion to Tolstoy or Me
one's equilibrium to revisit hist
ways this weird.

THE FIRST REVISED EDITION

veral hundred thousand dollars lying on a couch,
m hysterical misery to ordinary unhappiness. Film,
ise still had intellectual appeal (and it made money,
ed somewhere between the demise of the European
the video-rental store. We can actually remember a
re old enough to be reading this book—when a new
or Fellini was considered as much of an event as the
mation is today. And political science, while always
than a bona fide academic discipline, at least had
(the Free World vs. the Communist one), familiar
ntries that were perpetually being manipulated by
a global game board whose markings weren't con­

however, to judge by the couples standing in line
the kids in the next booth at the diner: Nobody's
e literate. In fact, we seem to have actually become
rman Mailer superseded as our national interpreter
like Larry King.
have turned out differently? If literacy was ever
nxiety books implied and as we, too, believed, for
979, when we first conceived of writing this one—
for the purpose of passing some imaginary stan­
nistered by a cranky professor, a snob at a dinner
, it isn't anymore. Most of us have more databases,
e messages, e-mail, books, newspapers, and Post-its
ough in one lifetime; we don't need any additional
hat to do with, thanks.
han ever, in our opinion, is the opportunity to have
onships, to be intimately if temporarily connected,
present. As nation-states devolve into family feuds
rge to vent is awarded fifteen minutes of airtime, it
lgence and more like preventive medicine to spend
music, art, philosophy, and discoveries that have, for
ed to endure. What lasts? What works? What's the
evil? What, if anything, can we trust? It's not that
way, extract clues from the testimony of the preg­
thers of serial killers, and the couples who have sex
become standard fare on Oprah and Maury and
ce, when vertigo sets in, to be able to turn for a sec­
elville or even Susan Sontag. And it helps restore
tory and see for oneself whether, in fact, life was al­

I N T R O D U C T I O N TO THE F I R S T

Consequently, what we've set out to provide in A
so much data as access; not a Cliffs Notes substitu
literacy slackers but an invitation to the ball, a way i
inspired, and comforted, sure, but also embarrasse
over the years, and which, we've assumed with ou
have stumped you too on occasion. In this ed
endeavored—at times with more goodwill than go
tions, uncover connections, facilitate communication
relationship between the reader (insofar as the rea
the same lines we do) and various aspects of Wes
since the latter, whatever its shortfalls, still provide
share without having to regret it in the morning, o
existence on market forces or for its appeal on me
that reminds us that we're capable of grapplin
enduring—even, if you think about it, more imme
or not O.J. really did it.

Finally, a note to those (mercifully few) readers w
that the first edition of An Incomplete Education fai
and urgent needs, to complete their educations: Do
around, either. We'll refrain from referring you, sn
for goodness' sake, don't you even look before you m
but we will permit ourselves to wonder what a "com
sist of, and why, if such a thing existed, you would
it all? No gaps to fill, no new territory to explore, no
over? (And no need for third and fourth revised e
write to us again and tell us you were just kidding.

REVISED EDITION XI

An Incomplete Education is not
ute or a cribsheet for cultural-
in to material that has thrilled,
ed, upset, and/or confused us
ur customary arrogance, may
dition, as in the first, we've
ood grace—to make introduc­

n, and generally lubricate the
ader thinks more or less along
stern Civ's "core curriculum,"
es a frame of reference we can
one that doesn't depend for its
ere prurient interest, and one
ng with questions of more
ediate—import than whether

who wrote to us complaining
ailed, despite their high hopes
on't hold your breath this time
nidely, to the book's title (but
march off to the cash register?),
mplete" education might con­

want it anyway. What, know
othing left to learn, education
editions of this book?) Please,





INTRODUCTION
ORIGINAL EDITI
MARCH 1986

It's like this: You're reading the Sunday book sec
book that isn't even about physics but about ho
confronted by that word again: quark. You have
twenty-five times, beginning in at least 1978, but
tain the definition (something about building block
thing about threesomes, something about birdshi
You're feeling stymied. You worry that you may n
advantage, that the world is passing you by, that
subscribe to a third newsweekly. Your coffee's getti
can't bring yourself to answer it.

Or it's like this: You do know what a quark is. Y
an attractive person you have recently met. How ar
son is calling to wonder if you feel like seeing a mo
time around. It's The Year of Living Dangerously, w
tall actress. Also, that very short actress. "Plus," t
donesia, which, next to India, is probably the most
nations. It's like the political scientists say, 'The la
saic that is Indonesia.' Right?" Silence at your end
son is into overkill, but that doesn't mean you don
India you could field. But Indonesia? Fortunately,
fer's lasagna in the freezer.

Or it's like this'. You know what a quark is. Als
The two of you enjoy the movie. The new perso
dinner party one of your best friends is giving at
pulling into a driveway full of BMWs. You
made. Along about the second margarita, the talk
ically, the causes of World War II. More specifica
easy. But it is interesting. "Well," says another gue
of lint from the sleeve of a double-breasted navy bl
the impact Nietzsche had, not only on Hitler, but

TO T H E
ION,

ction and there, in a review of a
ow to write a screenplay, you're
been confronted by it at least
t you have not managed to re­
ks), and the resonances (some­
it) are even more of a problem.
not use spare time to maximum
maybe it would make sense to
ing cold. The phone rings. You

You can answer the phone. It is
re you? How are you? The per­
ovie both of you missed the first
with Mel Gibson and that very
the person says, "it's set in In­
t fascinating of all Third World
abyrinth that is India, the mo­
of the phone. Clearly this per­
n't have to say something back.
, you have cable—and a Stouf-

so something about Indonesia.
on agrees to go with you to a
her country place. You arrive,
go inside. Introductions are
turns to World War II. Specif­
ally, Hitler. Already this is not
est, flicking an imaginary piece
lazer, "you really can't disregard
t on a prostrate Germany. You

XIV INTRODUCTION

know: The will to power. The
you agree, old bean?" Fortunat
freezer.

So what's your problem? W
back in college? Sure you wer
your bad days. Ditto your teac
the week your Philosophy 10
your poli-sci prof was served
hit the nonaligned nations. M
particles given your desperate
actually had all the answers—
whatever it was) wore off. No
educational gaps. And that, ol

Now we'll grant you that ed
they did even ten years ago.
sitting around Esquire magaz
of intellectual Dress for Success,
ambitious types like ourselve
an impression at cocktail pa
Johnson—or, for that matter,

Yup, times have changed s
around the Esquire research de
ple's party conversation turnin
and condo closings, the more w
noble (or uplifting, or profou
bluffers' handbooks? we wond
rather the brashest kind of on
of culture, politics, and scienc
from trying to fill in all the we
why hadn't we thought up Tri

Then we realized somethin
here had less to do with comp
perspective. In a world of bits
tion overloads and significance
no older than one is, but that's
good to be able to bring to the
ing the Supreme Court a sens
edge that people have been tr
to buttress one's comparison
knowledge of the going critica
casting our vote for groundin
not endless, mindless mobility

TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION

e Ûbermensch. The transvaluation of values. Don't
tely, you have cable—and a Stouffer's lasagna in the

Weren't you supposed to have learned all this stuff
re, but then, as now, you had your good days and
chers. Maybe you were in the infirmary with the flu
01 class was slogging through Zarathustra. Maybe
with divorce papers right about the time the class
Maybe you failed to see the relevance of subatomic
e need to get a date for Homecoming. Maybe you
—for a few glorious hours before the No-Doz (or
matter. The upshot is that you've got some serious
ld bean, is what this book is all about.
ducational gaps today don't signify in quite the way
In fact, when we first got the idea for this book,
zine's research department, we envisioned a kind
a guidebook to help reasonably literate, reasonably
es preserve an upwardly mobile image and make
arties by getting off a few good quotes from Dr.
by not referring to Evelyn Waugh as "she."
since then. (You didn't think we were still sitting
epartment, did you?) And the more we heard peo-
ng from literary matters to money-market accounts
we worried that the book we were working on wasn't
und; also long) enough. Is it just another of those
dered. Is its guiding spirit not insight at all, but
ne-upmanship? Is trying to reduce the complexities
ce to a couple hundred words each so very different
edges of one's pie in a game of Trivial Pursuit? (And
ivial Pursuit? But that's another story.)
ng. We realized that what we were really going for
petition and power positions than with context and
and bytes, of reruns and fast forwards, of informa-
e shortfalls (and of Donald Trump and bagpersons
s another story) it feels good to be grounded. It feels
e wire-service story about Reagan's dream of pack-
nse of what the Supreme Court is (and the knowl-
rying to pack it from the day it opened), to be able

of Steven Spielberg and D. W. Griffith with a
al line on the latter. In short, we found that we were
ng, as opposed to grooming. Also that grounding,
y, turns out to be the real power position.

INTRODUCTION TO THE ORI

And then something really strange happened.
conceivable appeal a Verdi, say, could have on a pla
seemed at the time, rightly—dominated by the Rol
a nineteenth-century landscape where the name o
grandiosity; where romanticism had no trashy con
spectacle could elicit overwhelming emotions with
ening to fry one's brains. No kidding, we actually
coming of age in a world of T-shirts and jeans and
didn't make one ineligible for a passport to the other
key pieces of information and a willingness to trave

And speaking of travel, let's face it: Bumping alo
mind day after day can't be doing much for your se
thing, along with power and enrichment, this book
you'll feel better about yourself once all those gaps
from the mortifying (how to tell Keats from Shelley
tell a nave from a narthex)? Imagine. Nothing but y

Before you take off, though, we ought to say some
ture. Basically, it's divided into chapters correspond
partments you remember from college (you were
weren't you?). Not that everything in the book is s
college, but it's all well within the limits of what an
to know. In those areas where our own roads were
called on specialist friends and colleagues to help us
to have covered everything; we simply went after w
trouble spots.

Now, our advice for using this book: Don't feel yo
chapter on a single tank of gas. And don't feel you
point B by lunchtime; better to slow down and enj
try to stay alert. Even with the potholes fixed, you'
pin turns (and the occasional five-car collision) up

IGINAL EDITION XV

Setting out to discover what
anet that was clearly—and, it
lling Stones, we stumbled into
of the game was grandeur, not
nnotations; where music and
hout, at the same time, threat­
liked this stuff! What's more,
groovy R 8c B riffs apparently
r place. One just needed a few
el.
long over the potholes of your
elf-esteem. Which is the third
k is all about. Don't you think
have been filled? Everything
y) to the merely pesky (how to
you and the open road.
mething about the book's struc­
ding to the disciplines and de­
paying that much attention,
stuff you'd necessarily study in
"educated" person is expected
en't in such great repair, we've
s out. Even so, we don't claim
what struck us as the biggest

ou have to read all of any given
u have to get from point A to
joy the scenery. Do, however,
'll want to be braced for hair­
ahead.





A

IN
E

N

NCOMPLETE
EDUCATION





ONE

Contents

* American Literature 101: A First-Semester Sylla
* The Beat Goes On: A Hundred Years' Worth of
* American Intellectual History, and Stop That Sn

Eight American Intellectuals 31
* Family Feud: A Brief History of American Politi
* American Mischief: Five Tales of Ambition, Gr
Mind-Boggling Incompetence that Took Place Long Befor
the Invasion of Iraq 48
* Famous Last Words: Twelve Supreme Court De

Worth Knowing by Name 52

Flag drill, farmworkers' camp, Caldwell, Idaho,

abus 4
Modern American Poetry 17
nickering:
ical Parties 46
reed, Paranoia, and
re
ecisions

1941

4 AN I N C O M P L E T E

American

A FIRST-SEM

You signed up for it thinkin
of the stuff back in high s
Or had you? As it turned o
Dick was the expression on Gr
for the last time. And was it re
it the Classics Illustrated versi
only one who overestimated
professor was busy making the

Then there was the materia
signed up for The Nineteenth
Now that you're older, though,
the literary figures you were m
and large only moonlighting a
building a nation, framing a co
ness, or simply busting their ch
was about to fork over six figu
ishing a screenplay.

Try, then, to think only kin
chart, you refresh your memory
face again—in your freshman

JONATHAN EDWA

Product of: No
from
Ma
sion
got

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E EDUCATION

n Literature 101

MESTER SYLLABUS

ng it would be a breeze. After all, you'd read most
school, hadn't you?
out, the thing you remembered best about Moby-
regory Peck's face as he and the whale went down
eally The Scarlet Letter you liked so much? Or was
on of The Scarlet Letter} O f course, you weren't the
your familiarity with your literary heritage; your
e same mistake.
al itself, much of it so bad it made you wish you'd

Century French Novel: Stendhal to Zola instead.
, you may be willing to make allowances. After all,
most likely to encounter the first semester were by
s writers. They had to spend the bulk of their time
onstitution, carving a civilization out of the wilder­
hops trying to make a living. In those days, no one
ures so some Puritan could lie around Malibu pol­

nd and patriotic thoughts as, with the help of this
y on all those things you were asked to face—or to
introduction to American Lit.

ARDS (1703-1758)

rthampton, Massachusetts, where he ruled
m the pulpit for thirty years; Stockbridge,
assachusetts, where he became an Indian mis­
nary after the townspeople of Northampton
t fed up with him.

ergyman, theologian.

e sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
d " (1741), the most famous example of "the
eaching of terror."

AMER

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RICAN STUDIES 5

ny number of sermons, notably "God Glorified in
e Work of Redemption by the Greatness of
Mans Dependence on Him in the Whole of It"
1731), Edwards' first sermon, in which he pin­
oints the moral failings of New Englanders; and
A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of
od" (1737), describing various types and stages of
ligious conversion. Also, if your college professor
as a fundamentalist, a New Englander, or simply
adistic, one or two of the treatises, e.g., "A Careful
nd Strict Enquiry into the Freedom of the
Will" (1754), or the "Great Christian Doctrine of
riginal Sin Defended" (1758). Not to be missed:
dip into Edwards' Personal Narrative, which sug­
ests the psychological connection between being
merica's number-one Puritan clergyman and the
nly son in a family with eleven children.

dwards' historical importance as quintessential
uritan thinker and hero of the Great Awaken­
ng, the religious revival that swept New E n ­
land from the late 1730s to 1750.

6 AN I N C O M P L E T E

What You Didn't Find Out Until Wh
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BENJAMIN FRANK

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E EDUCATION

h a t Edwards thought about, namely, the need
get back to the old-fashioned Calvinist belief
man's basic depravity and in his total depen­
nce on God's goodwill for salvation. (Forget
out the "covenant" theory of Protestantism;
cording to Edwards, God doesn't bother cut­
g deals with humans.) Also, his insistence
at faith and conversion be emotional, not just
ellectual.

KLIN (1706-1790)

iladelphia, Pennsylvania.

inter, promoter, inventor, diplomat, states­
an.

e Declaration ofIndependence (1776), which he
lped draft.

e Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin ( 1 7 7 1 -
88), considered one of the greatest autobi­
raphies ever written; sample maxims from
or Richard's Almanack (1732-1757), mostly on
w to make money or keep from spending it;
y number of articles and essays on topics of
storical interest, ranging from "Rules by
hich a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a
mall One," and "An Edict by the King of Prus­
" (both 1773), about the colonies' Great
itain problem, to "Experiments and Observa­
ns on Electricity" (1751), all of which are
ite painless.

ot a thing. But back in grade school you pre-
mably learned that Franklin invented a stove,
ocal glasses, and the lightning rod; that he es­
blished the first, or almost the first, library, fire
partment, hospital, and insurance company;
at he helped negotiate the treaty with France
at allowed America to win independence; that