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

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

"scholarship" as free tuition fo
lot. Jewish, for the most part,
to being viewed as vaguely z/w
to themselves. (The notable ex
tuals go, but a solid American
by thinking, as often as not, wi
of incessant thinking. Intellect
movies; they just keep thinking

GERTRUD

Our
rare
can.
Rad
Balt
can,
was
boys
two
ador
writ
Gen
al.),
wit
d'oe
(an
bere
later
Gert, he hadn't learned as mu
that if she hadn't been so tight
to have "discovered"), the nam
rable than "Rooms," "Objects
that more or less sum up the G
still surrounds her name has l
(this was Paris, after all) than w
unreadable. Straining to com
painting, the "Mama of Dada"
hemian chic wore off, she seem

E EDUCATION

or quarterbacks, intellectuals tend to be a marginal
and New York Jewish at that, they are accustomed
w-American and to talking mainly to each other—or
xception is Norman Mailer, an oddball as intellec­
who managed to capture the popular imagination
ith his fists.) The problem is precisely this business
tuals don't think up a nifty idea, then sell it to the
g up more ideas, as if that were the point.

DE STEIN (1874-1946)

r man in Paris, so to speak, Stein was one of those
e expatriates who wasn't ashamed to be an Ameri­
. In fact, for forty-odd years after she'd bid adieu to
dcliffe, medical school, and her rich relatives in
timore, she was positively thrilled to be an Ameri­
, probably because her exposure to her compatriots

pretty much limited to the innumerable dough­
s and GIs she befriended (and wrote about) during

world wars—all of whom, to hear her tell it,
red her—and to the struggling-but-stylish young
ters for whom she coined the phrase "The Lost
neration" (Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, et
, who were happy to pay homage to her genuine

and fearless intellect while scarfing up hors
euvres at the Saturday soirées at 27 rue de Fleurus

address, by the way, that's as much to be remem­
ed as anything Stein wrote). True, Hemingway
r insisted that, although he'd learned a lot from
ch as she kept telling everyone he had. True, too,
with Hemingway and Picasso (whom she claimed
me Gertrude Stein might today be no more memo­
," or "Food," three pieces of experimental writing
Gertrude Stein problem. The mysterious aura that
less to do with her eccentricity or her lesbianism
with the fact that most of what she wrote is simply
e up with the exact literary equivalent of Cubist
" was often so pointlessly cerebral that once the bo-
med merely numbing.

AMER

RECOMMENDED READING: Three Lives (1909), thr
three serving women; an early work in which Stein's
scrambled syntax, and lack of punctuation still man
stead of burying them. The Autobiography of Alice B
scandale in which Stein, adopting the persona of
companion, disseminated her opinions on the fam
great good humor and, the critics said, an outrageo
listen to Four Saints in Three Acts (1934), an ope
Thomson that still gets good notices.

EDMUND WILSON (1

A squire trapped in the body of a bulldog. Or do w
mean a bulldog trapped in the body of a squire? An
hoo, America's foremost man of letters, decade af
decade, from the Twenties until the day of his dea
Erudite and cantankerous, Wilson largely steer
clear of the teaching positions and institutional i
volvements that all other literary critics and social h
torians seemed to take refuge in, preferring to wing
as a reviewer and journalist. T h e life makes go
reading: quasi-aristocratic New Jersey boyhoo
Princeton education (and start of lifelong friendsh
with F. Scott Fitzgerald), several marriages, includi
one to Mary McCarthy (whom he persuaded to wr
fiction), robust sex life, complete with a fairly we
documented foot fetish, running battles with the 1R
(over unpaid income taxes) and Vladimir Nabok
(over Russian verse forms), the nickname "Bunny
Plus, who else went out and studied Hebrew in ord
to decipher the Dead Sea Scrolls (Wilson's sing
biggest scoop) or ploughed through a thousand mus
volumes because he wanted to figure out the Civil
see, was determined to get to the bottom of things
the progress of the Republic, and explain the world
to themselves, all with the understanding that it c
sect—and hold forth on—Emily Post as T. S. Eliot

RICAN STUDIES 33

ree short novels centered on
s experiments with repetition,
aged to evoke her subjects in-
B. Toklas (1933), the succès de
her long-time secretary and
mous artists of her day with
ous lack of sense. Also, give a
era collaboration with Virgil

895-1972)

we
ny-
fter
th.
red
in-
is-
g it
od
od,
hip
ing
rite
ell-
RS
kov
y."
der
gle
sty
War for himself? Bunny, you
s, make connections, monitor

to Americans and Americans
could be as much fun to dis-
t.

34 AN I N C O M P L E T

RECOMMENDED READING: Axe
bolist tradition in Europe and
Joyce, et al. To the Finland Stat
dition in Europe and a good
Trotsky, et al. Upstate (1972), a
imminent death.

LIONEL T

Self
cult
whe
Aus
find
pos
big
Col
Tril
ideo
the
still
seem
hist
betw
thet
Tril
and the bon mots like Wilso
about the nature and quality o
you the guest room if, as one
the dorm.

RECOMMENDED READING: The
read "New York" critical work,
tually aimed, as Trilling said,
pressure." The Middle of the Jo
(read Stalinism) confronting A
the life of Whittaker Chambe
especially the concluding exam

E EDUCATION

eVs Castle (1931), a book-length study of the sym­
a good general introduction to Yeats, Eliot, Proust,
tion (1940), a book-length study of the radical tra­
d general introduction to Vico, Michelet, Lenin,
an old man's meditation on himself, his life, and his

TRILLING (1905-1975)

f, society, mind, will, history, and, needless to say,
ture. It can be a bit of a yawn, frankly, especially
en you really only wanted him to explain what Jane
sten was up to in Mansfield Park, but at least you'll
d out what liberalism—of the intellectual as op­
ed to the merely political variety—is all about. A

Freudian, also a big Marxist, and affiliated with
lumbia University for his entire professional life,
lling worries about things like "the contemporary
ology of irrationalism" (this in the Sixties, when

view from Morningside Heights wouldn't hold
l, and when Trilling himself was beginning to
m a little, uh, over the hill); "our disaffection from
tory"; and, more than anything else, the tensions
ween self and society, literature and politics, aes­
tics and morality. A touch rueful, a little low-key,
lling wasn't constantly breaking out the port
n, but his heart was in the right place: H e cared
of life on the planet, and probably would have lent
of his undergraduates, you'd gotten locked out of

e Liberal Imagination (1950), the single most widely
, which, under the guise of discussing literature, ac­
to put liberal assumptions "under some degree of
ourney (1947), his one novel, about political issues
American intellectuals of the day; loosely based on
ers. Sincerity and Authenticity (1972), late Trilling,
mination of "the doctrine that madness is health."

AMER

HANNAH ARENDT (1

Back in the Fifties she seemed like an absolute go
send—a bona fide German intellectual come to ro
in the American university system at a time when
tellectuals had the kind of clout that real estate dev
opers have today. Not only did Arendt actua
condescend to talk to her students at Prince
(where she was the first woman professor ever), a
Columbia, and Berkeley, and so on, but she s
nothing demeaning in writing about current even
bringing to bear the kind of Old World erudition a
untranslated Latin and Greek phrases that made M
and Mrs. America feel they could stand tall. S
wasn't afraid to take on the looming postwar boge
men—war crimes, revolution, genocide—and, as
seemed at the time, wrestle them to the ground w
the sheer force of her Teutonic aloofness, her faith
the power of the rational, her ability to place unspea
a worldview and a history that, inevitably, brough
moderation-minded Greeks. Granted, she was a
about her audience, a little too arbitrary in her asse
ing in her generalizations for many of her fellow po
was a little too intent on forging order out of chaos
to distinguishing among "labor," "work," and "acti
the nature of "thinking," we decided we'd rather m
pensed so much intellectual chicken soup to so ma
thought to point out, amid the hysteria of the Nu
Adolf Eichmann had not acted alone? And when A
usually a lulu—like the notion that even nice midd
monstrous acts of destruction. The latter idea gav
famous phrase, "the banality of evil," but, it is g
Left—which, of course, later disowned Arendt as a

RECOMMENDED READING: The Origins of Totalitaria
times meandering study of the evolution of ninete
and imperialism into twentieth-century Nazism an
sic treatise on the subject, it was, surprisingly enoug
mann in Jerusalem: The Banality of Evil (1963), w
enemies by insisting not only that Eichmann didn't
in tongues, but that he didn't even get a fair trial. Th

RICAN STUDIES 35

1906-1974)

od­
oost

in­
vel­
ally
eton
and
saw
nts,
and
Mr.
She
ey­
s it
with
h in
akable events in the context of
ht us home to Plato and the
a little too undiscriminating
ertions, and a little too sweep­
olitical philosophers. And she
s for our taste: When it came
ion," or reading 258 pages on
merengue. Still, who else dis­
any febrile minds? Who else
uremberg trials, that perhaps
Arendt had an insight, it was
dle-class folks were capable of
ve rise not only to her now-
generally agreed, to the New
a flabby bourgeois.

anism (1951), a dense, some­
eenth-century anti-Semitism
d Communism; still the clas­
gh, a bestseller in its day. Eich­
with which she made a lot of
vomit green slime and speak
he Life of the Mind (1977), her

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

unfinished magnum opus, two
as one critic pointed out, it ma
it does a bang-up job of chron

PAUL GO

Tru
tion
to t
sou
spok
talk
calls
talis
win
on a
and
the
ble,
Thu
edu
(196
othe
you'll also have to plow throug
confessions; his treatises on lin
theater, and, with his brother,
analysis and all those sit-ins. A
ization, Goodman never lost h
thing: If your parents used to t
well have been on Goodman's

RECOMMENDED READING: Gro
The Empire City (1959), a nove
a lambasting of the Thirties, F
Time (1967), his journal of lat
modern counterpart to Thorea

E EDUCATION

o volumes of which were published posthumously;
ay fall short of chronicling the life of the mind, but
nicling the life of Arendt's mind.

OODMAN (1911-1972)

e, he was an anarchist, draft dodger, sexual libera-
nist (and confirmed bisexual), as well as den father
the New Left, but Paul Goodman still comes off
nding an awful lot like Mr. Chips. Talk about soft-
kenness, talk about lending a hand, talk about
king it out: Goodman is there for the "kids," as he
s them, including the "resigned" beats and the "fa­
stic" hoods, plus everybody else who's going to
d up either dropping out or making Chevy tail fins
an assembly line. Humankind is innocent, loving,

creative, you dig? It's the bureaucracies that create
evil, that make Honor and Community impossi­
and it's the kids who really take it in the groin.
us goes the indictment of the American social and
cational systems in Goodman's Growing Up Absurd
60), the book that made him more than just an­
er underground hero. But to get the whole picture,
gh his poems, plays, novels, magazine pieces, and
nguistics, constitutional law, Gestalt therapy, Noh
city planning; plus listen to him tell you about his
A Renaissance man in an era that favored special­
his sense of wonder—or of outrage. And one more
try to get you to watch them "making love," it may
say-so.

owing Up Absurd, of course. And, if you liked that,
el with a hero perversely named Horatio Alger and
Forties, and Fifties. Five Years: Thoughts in a Useless
te-Fifties despair. And "May Pamphlet" (1945), a
aus "Civil Disobedience."

AMER

NORMAN MAILER

Although he probably wouldn't have wowed them a
the American intellectual arena, is at least a middlew
Fifties, when he took time off from his pursuit of the
to write a weekly column for The Village Voice (w
for decades, our most visible social critic, purveyor o
and promoter of the concept of the artist as public
superjournalist—even Mailer has never claimed to
ceeded to define new waves of consciousness, from "
feminism, just as (though never, as his detractors poi
tural mainstream. Like a true New Journalist, he wa
tion, taking risks, playing with the language, and ma
Unlike other New Journalists, however, he came e
background, a Harvard education, considerable talen
bition to make him emperor, if only he'd been a little
destructive. By the late Sixties, he'd hit on the strateg
using narcissism as a tool for observation and comm
both to validate a decade or so of personal excess (d
much-publicized stabbing of his second wife) and to
successor to Henry Adams. Later, he got himself
coffee-table books, launched an unsuccessful campa
York City, married too many women, sired too many
ligerent remarks on T V talk shows, got behind one o
(Jack Abbott), spent a decade writing a "masterpiec
Evenings) and another decade writing a spy story no

RICAN STUDIES 31

(1923-)

at the Deux Magots, Mailer, in
weight. Beginning in the mid-
Great American Novelist prize
which he co-founded), he was,
of trends, attacker of ideologies,
c figure. Operating as a sort of

be a man of letters—he pro-
"hip" to the peace movement to
nt out, before) they hit the cul-
as forever jumping into the ac-
aking sociological connections.
equipped with a liberal Jewish
nt as a novelist, and enough am-
e less cerebral and a lot less self-
gy (soon to become an M O ) of
mentary, a device that seemed
drugs, drink, fistfights, and the
o set him up as the intellectual
f into debt, wrote second-rate
aign for the mayoralty of New
y children, made too many bel-
of the worst causes célèbres ever
ce" no one could read (Ancient
o one had time to read (Harlots

2? AN I N C O M P L E T E

Ghost, 1,310 pages, and that's on
tience—and that goes double fo
movement. Still, it's worth reme
period, no major event in U.S. li
himself observing it." Plus, he
having himself at parties. Most
aged to explore the nature of c
angles—and lived to tell the tale

RECOMMENDED READING: Adve
ive essays and mean-spirited cr
ning of Mailer's notoriety; read
White Negro" and "The Time
account of the anti-Vietnam W
nonfiction book and the debut
Miami and the Siege of Chicago
to penetrate to the heart—or
conventions. The Executioners
convinced murderer Gary Gilm
books and, as one critic suggest

NOAM

For the better part of two deca
earliest days of the Vietnam Wa
presence in Southeast Asia, chi
ton, the technocrats of the mi
gentsia," especially those memb
really happening, at the Pentago
ure to tell the whole story—an
gance inherent in First World im

shri
whe
sors
sion
of D
peac
fron

M
MIT
cam
seco
theo

EDUCATION

nly part one), and generally exhausted everyone's pa­
or anyone even remotely connected with the women's
embering that, as Time magazine put it, "for a heady
ife seemed quite complete until Mailer had observed
did marry that nice redhead and finally started be­
t important, it's hard to think of anyone who man­
celebrity in the media age from so many different
e.

ertisementsfor Myself (19S9), a collection of combat­
riticism of fellow writers, which marked the begin­
d it for the two acknowledged masterpieces: "The

of Her Time." Armies of the Night (1968), Mailers
War march on Washington; his most widely read
t of the narrator-as-center-of-the-universe format.
(1969), more of the same, only different; an attempt
lack thereof—of the Republican and Democratic

Song (1979), the Pulitzer Prize-winning saga of
more; Mailer's comeback after all those coffee-table
ted, his single foray into punk literature.

CHOMSKY (1928-)

ades served as the conscience of a nation. From the
ar, he spearheaded resistance against the American
iding the fancy, amoral policy makers in Washing­
ilitary-industrial complex, and the "liberal intelli­
bers of it charged with making sense of what was
on as in the Mekong Delta. (It was the media's fail­
nd its implications, including the racism and arro­
mperialism—that arguably annoyed him most.) No
nking violet, he maintained, for instance, back
en Henry Kissinger was up for a Columbia profes­
ship, that the former secretary of state and profes­
nal eminencegrise was fit to head only a "Department
Death." And he wasn't just talk: In peace march after
ce march you could count on spotting him in the
nt lines.
Meanwhile, he somehow managed to function as an

linguistics professor, and, in fairly short order, be­
me indisputably the most influential linguist of the
ond half of the century. Chomsky's most famous
ory concerns something he called generative—a.k.a.

AMER

transformational—grammar, in which he argued th
similarity manifested by the languages of the world
which little children learn to speak them, suggested th
and especially for grammatical structure, is innate, as
color or left-handedness. The proof: All of us cons
quences and combinations of words that we've never
sciously learned. Chomsky singlehandedly managed
center, transforming it—you should pardon the expre
cialty practiced among moribund Indian tribes and s
the subject of heated debate among epistemologists
the French. Naturally, he accumulated his share of d
complained that he made the human consciousness s
computer; others noted that he never really defined w
ture," the psychic system from which our spoken lang
any sentence or group of sentences is in some way a m

Chomsky's influence on political life seemed to
States, in the early Seventies, after which, we can't h
drafted and sent to Vietnam ended for many of hi
supporters. (It probably hadn't helped that he'd spo
over in Cambodia and for the Palestinians back when
in the white hats, then turned around and defended
ted he hadn't read, that denied the historical reality
was the problem of Chomsky's own prose style, a
many readers hankering for Gary Trudeau and Do
writing—and writing and writing. By the 1990s
enough to publish his political essays as short, reader
him more accessible to a mainstream audience. Then
Trade Center and the Bush administration's respo
some people to feel they needed an alternative to th
Chomsky was no longer a figure on the radical fring
U.S. foreign policy (he views America as the mothe
Bush administration's "grand imperial design" as an o
kind of global aggression and disregard for internati
since the end of World War II) resonated with many
themselves radicals, or even leftists. Chomsky's 9-11
9-11 Talks and Interviews (2003), and Hegemony or
bestseller lists, and his backlisted political books hav

RECOMMENDED READING: Aforementioned bestselle
Language and Mind, a series of three lectures Chomsk
his clearest statement on the relations between his the
of human nature; follow with Topics in the Theory of

RICAN STUDIES 39

hat the degree of grammatical
d, coupled with the ease with
hat mans capacity for language,
s genetically determined as eye
standy (and painlessly) use se­
r heard before, much less con­
d to bring linguistics front and
ession—from an academic spe­
sleepy college sophomores into
s, behavioral psychologists, and
detractors in the process. Some
sound suspiciously like a home
what he meant by "deep struc­
guage is generated and of which
map.
o peak, at least in the United
help noting, the threat of being
is most ardent campus-radical
oken up for the Khmer Rouge
n the Israelis were still the guys
a book, which he later admit­
of the Holocaust.) And there
flat, humorless affair that left
oonesbury. But Chomsky kept

some publishers were savvy
r-friendly paperbacks, making
n came the attack on the World
onse, which apparendy caused
he daily media spin. Suddenly
ge. His fierce denunciations of
er of all "rogue states" and the
out-of-the-closet version of the
ional law we've been guilty of
y people who did not consider
(2001), Power and Terror: Post
r Survival (2004) all made the
e sold millions of copies.

rs, plus you might want to try
ky gave at Berkeley in 1967, for
eory of language and his theory
f Generative Grammar (1966), an

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

easy-to-understand reprise of h
tax (1965) is the classic workin
even the slimmest chance of bei
of the early political essays are
(1969); a more recent collection

SUSAN S

She
tion,
Sixti
grou
say a
from
the F
knew
ous
a ha
the
her b
imm
soph
and
clad in jeans, sneakers, and an
to the Suprêmes. Maybe you n
at least you knew that if Sonta
Bergman, Genet, Warhol, Ar
Strauss, Norman O. Brown, a
was the hallmark of Sontag's m
writer who had, at the time, al
suing proclamations to a hosti
her critics for her political naïv
hemence of her assertions; an
curring delusion that life is ar
resemble bad television—and
changed her mind about a lot
just another form of fascism a
that the content of a work of a
of simple-minded stereotypes
science, seriousness, and mora
and film scripts, directing plays

E EDUCATION

his basic linguistic beliefs. Aspects of the Theory of Syn-
ng out of Chomsky's mature theory, but if you stood
ing able to read it, you wouldn't be reading this. Many
collected in American Power and the New Mandarins
n is Deterring Democracy (1991).

SONTAG (1933-2004)

delineated a new aesthetic, heavy on style, sensa-
, and immediacy. For Sontag (the Sontag of the
ies, that is) art and morality had no common
und and it didn't matter what an artist was trying to
as long as the result turned you on. For everyone
m the Partisan Review crowd to the kids down at
Fillmore, she seemed like a godsend; she not only
w where it was at, she was where it was at. A seri-
thinker with a frame of reference to beat the band,
ard-nosed analytical style, and subscriptions to all
latest European journals, she would emerge from
book-lined study (where she had, presumably, been
mersed in a scholarly comparison of Hegel's philo-
hical vocabulary, Schoenberg's twelve-tone theory,
the use of the quick cut in the films of Godard),
n old cardigan, to tell the world it was O K to listen
never did understand what Godard was getting at—
ag took him on, he, too, was where it was at. Ditto
rtaud, John Cage, Roland Barthes, Claude Lévi-
nd the government of North Vietnam. Eclecticism
modernist (today, read postmodernist) sensibility. A
ll the grace and charm of a guerrilla commando is-
ile government, she came under heavy attack from
veté (and revisionism); for the uncompromising ve-
nd for suffering, as one writer put it, "from the re-
rt." Over the years, however, as life came more to

after Sontag herself survived breast cancer—she
of things, denouncing Soviet-style communism as
and insisting that style wasn't everything after all,
art counted, too. In a culture increasingly enamored
s and special effects, Sontag crusaded for con-
al complexity. She also branched out: writing theater
s (notably, a production of Waitingfor Godot in war-

AMER

torn Sarajevo in 1993), and trying her hand at f
proclaimed "romance" {The Volcano Lover, 1992) tha
views. Still, throughout her life she remained outspok
she made plenty of enemies after September 1 1 , 2 0 0
Yorker, "Whatever may be said of the perpetrators .
last piece, "Regarding the Torture of Others," publish
she was to die of cancer (after fighting the disease, o
years), reflected on the photographs of Iraqi prisoner
she declared, that, as representing both the fundame
occupation and the signature style of the U.S. admin
"The photographs are us."

RECOMMENDED READING: Against Interpretation (19
includes some of her best-known works, e.g., the title
on Camp." Styles of Radical Will (1966), another n
points are a defense of pornography ("The Pornogra
discussion of Godard ("Godard"), and one of her mo
readable—essays, "Trip to Hanoi." On Photography (1
large lay audience and innumerable enemies among p
a lot of people feel they finally knew what to mak
Metaphor (1978), written during her own fight aga
guage used to describe diseases and challenged the b
hind society's cancer metaphors. AIDS and Its Metaph
the above, exposed the racism and homophobia that c
epidemic.

AND EIGHT PEOPL
AMERICAN OR N

HAD IDEAS WHOSE
IT SEEMED AT THE

HAD COME

MARSHALL McLUHAN

"The medium is the message," of course. That is, th
affects us more than the information itself. T h e me
of the aphorism had it, "the massage": Far from be
something to people; it takes hold of them, bu
point—television, with its mosaic of tiny dots of lig
motion and sound, and its relentless projection of a

RICAN STUDIES 41

fiction—she produced a self-
at managed to get some rave re­
ken about politics. For example,
0 1 , when she wrote in the New
. . . they were not cowards." Her
hed in 2004, the same year that
on and off, for more than thirty
rs tortured at Abu Ghraib. In it
ental corruption of any foreign
nistration of George W. Bush,

966), a collection of essays that
e piece, "On Style," and "Notes
nonfiction grab bag whose high
aphic Imagination"), a lengthy
st famous—and certainly most
1977), the book that won her a
photographers (and that helped
ke of Diane Arbus). Illness as
ainst cancer, dissected the lan­
blame-the-victim attitudes be­
hors (1988), a kind of sequel to
colored public discussion of the

LE WHO,
NOT,
E TIME,

TIME,
E

(1911-1980)

he way we acquire information
edium is also, as a later version
eing neutral, a medium "does
mps them around." Case in
ght, its lack of clarification, its
all of the above straight at the

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

viewer, thereby guaranteeing t
is visual. And high time, too. E
ing out those endless lines of b
linear, and life fragmented; wi
last returning to certain of his t
village." There were those who
as less a communications theor
charlatan, but even they could
and "cool" media (it's the latter
phone, tend to involve you
McLuhan had sort of beaten h
to remark, "I don't pretend to u

R. B U C K M I N S

"An engineer, inventor, math
poet, cosmogonist, comprehen
described himself; for a few o
terrible," or "Gyro Gearloose"
that man, through technology
the world from itself"; that "Sp
needed periodic tuning; that
compactly on a properly desig
that the geodesic dome, a sph
the most rigorously logical str
date with principle," "Bucky"
Khrushchev's Moscow and eve
ing excitedly from behind Cok
nually, that is, except for the
anybody, including his wife.) H
by relatively few principles and
have been right. In 1985, sc
which, because it's reminiscent
a "buckyball"—or, more forma
sequently spawned a whole new

KATE M

Whatever their personal feeli
thought men would be open-m

E EDUCATION

that viewer an experience as aural and tactile as it
Ever since Gutenberg and his printing press, spew­
bits of print, the eye had gotten despotic, thinking
th the advent of the age of electronics man was at
tribal ways—and the world was becoming a "global
o dismissed McLuhan (for the record, a Canadian)
ist cum college professor than a phrase-mongering
dn't ignore entirely his distinction between "hot"
r that, as with T V or comic books or talking on the

so much that you're late for supper). Besides,
his critics to the punch: O f his own work, he liked
understand it. After all, my stuff is very difficult."

TER FULLER (1895-1983)

hematician, architect, cartographer, philosopher,
nsive designer, and choreographer" was how Fuller
other people "crackpot," "megalomaniac," "enfant
" did as good a job more economically. Convinced

and planning, could become superman and "save
paceship Earth" was a large mechanical device that
"the entire population" of that earth "could live
gned Haiti and comfortably on the British Isles";
here composed of much smaller tetrahedrons, was
ructure around; and that he himself had "a blind
flew tens of thousands of miles annually, visiting
erybody else's college campus with equal élan, wav­
ke-bottle glasses for up to six hours at a time. (An­
year during which he refused to speak at all, to
His ultimate conclusion: The universe is governed
d its essence is not matter but design. P.S. He may
cientists discovered a spherical carbon molecule,
t in its structure of a geodesic dome, they dubbed
ally, a buckminster fullerene—and which has sub­
w heavy-breathing branch of chemistry.

MILLETT (1934-)

ings about women in combat boots, you'd have
minded enough to admit that, for a chick, Millet

AMER

had guts. An academic turned activist, and one of
in-revolt, she was always willing to walk it like
Friedan, the supply-sider of sisterhood, was still d
her nails over whether or not it was O K to have le
out in full drag, holding the Statue of Liberty host
vivid—not to say tedious—detail, and telling wom
underneath, not just figuratively but literally. But it
Politics became a bestseller, its once-revolutionary
feminist canon, men started having trouble getti
began to wonder if having your own corner office a
ally all it was cracked up to be.

Not that Millet herself necessarily got to spend
ideological ascendency; diagnosed as manic-depr
against her lithium regimen seven years later and s
chased around by men in white coats, an interlud
memoir, The Loony Bin Trip. Today, older, wis
lithium, she runs a women's artist collective on
Poughkeepsie, New York.

MALCOLM X (1925

The Last Angry Negro, before he got everybody t
Malcolm (né Malcolm Little and a.k.a. Red, Satan,
ick El-Shabazz) was one of the first to come right o
really thought of honkies. Although in his days as
to become a trend, followed closely on his days a
vict/Muslim convert—Malcolm never actually did
sheer spleen, to scare the socks off Whitey, make
for the Excedrin, and provide a role model for a gen
were ready to put their muscle where Malcolm's mo
thought of his politics, everyone had to admit tha
one point, the New York Times rated him the countr
pus speaker, after Barry Goldwater. Malcolm mello
Muhammad booted him out of the Black Mu
dropped him as his personal spiritual advisor). Unfo
that that he was gunned down by an informal firin
had it, by the Muslims, the U . S . government, or th
he was immortalized by the bestselling autobiog
"Roots" Haley. A symbol of black manhood and
three decades (and, some social observers have sug
"gangsta" rap), Malcolm briefly became a matin

RICAN STUDIES 43

those unstoppable Catholics-
e she talked it. While Betty
dressing for success and biting
esbians as friends, Millett was
tage, chronicling her affairs in
en it was time to get out from
t all paid off eventually: Sexual
y thesis was accepted as basic
ing it up, and Betty Friedan
and your own coronary was re­

d much time gloating over her
ressive in 1973, she rebelled
spent the early Eighties being
de she chronicled in her 1991
er, and presumably back on

her Christmas-tree farm in

5-1965)

to stop saying Negro, Brother
, Homeboy, and El-Hajj Mal-
out and tell the world what he
a radical—which, in what was
as a dealer/pimp/burglar/con-
d much, he managed, through
Martin Luther King Jr. reach
neration of black activists who
outh had been. Whatever folks
at Malcolm had charisma: At
ry's second most popular cam­
owed considerably after Elijah
slims (and Muhammad Ali
ortunately, it wasn't long after
g squad hired, various rumors
he Red Chinese. Whatever—
graphy coauthored with Alex
righteous anger for the next
ggested, a direct progenitor of
nee idol—and barely escaped

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

being reduced to a fashion sta
on the autobiography in 1992.

ERNESTO "CH

The peripatetic Argentine rev
and, along with Huey Newton
Although he did have a catch
and a way with a beret, the ma
two man, chief ideologue, and
he wrote the book on guerrilla
Neck that a nice middle-class
less, could make good defend
World. His split with Fidel ov
(Che was holding out for the p
tion, either; nor did going un
later turned out, he was in all t
ious Latin American hot spots
little half-baked, and when he
smack into the Bolivian army
thereby creating an instant ma

H U N T E R S. T

The one journalist you could
University of Colorado. A sp
Raoul D u k e in Rolling Stone
Uncle D u k e in Doonesbury), H
by inventing "gonzo journalis
New Journalism and two steps
volved around drugs, violenc
meeting his deadlines, given t
events were engineered to ma
the record, Hunter really did
shared the rampant paranoia o
ious controlled substances he
1972 presidential campaign,
Haight-Ashbury set. By the e
Dr. Gonzo, arriving in Saigo
lost his job as top gonzo journ

E EDUCATION

atement—when director Spike Lee based a movie
.

HE" GUEVARA (1928-1967)

volutionary who became a model of radical style
n, one of the seminal dorm posters of the Sixties.
hy nickname (it translates, roughly, as "Hey, you")
ain points to remember are that he was the number
d resident purist of the Cuban revolution, and that
warfare. H e also showed all the kids back in Great
boy from Buenos Aires, with a medical degree, no
ing the downtrodden in the jungles of the Third
ver the latter's cop-out to Soviet-style materialism
purity of Chinese Marxism) didn't hurt his reputa­
derground for a couple of years, during which, it
the right places—North Vietnam, the Congo, var­
s. Unfortunately, his revolutionary theories were a
e tried to implement them down in Bolivia, he ran
y—a colonel of which summarily executed him,
artyr.

THOMPSON (1939-2005)

d trust back when you were a sophomore at the
portswriter by training and temperament (he was
magazine, although you may know him better as
Hunter, as we all called him, became a media star
sm," a reportorial style that was one step beyond
s over the edge of the pool. Gonzo journalism re­

e, and the patent impossibility of Hunter's ever
the condition he was in. It assumed that all global
ake you laugh, make you famous, or kill you. For
d fear and loathe Richard Nixon, with whom he
of the day; once he'd finished cataloguing the var­
e'd supposedly ingested to ease the pain of the
he was a shoo-in as the Walter Cronkite of the
end of the decade, however, the joyride was over.
on to cover the evacuation, learned that he'd just
nalist and with it his medical insurance. Failing to

AMER

convince the North Vietnamese that he'd be a m
filed his expenses and caught the next plane home
college kids started thinking that maybe there w
room; worse, history rounded a bend and they d
over a decade it was hard to think about Hunter
might be freaking out over—or on—this week. Bu
or luckier than his copy had led us to believe
Nineties, along with bell-bottoms and platform s
count 'em, three, biographies, which, he pointed
had had during his lifetime. True, he was often
shell, cut off from the rest of the world and mired
ferred to himself, "an elderly dope fiend living ou
certainly didn't appear to be enjoying his golden y
in a small Colorado town was disrupted by bab
Hunter referred to as the "Generation of Swine"—
building million-dollar homes and complaining
tendency to shoot firearms and set off explosive
which he was at least daily. But when Thompso
inflicted gunshot wound to the head, an awful lot
loss personally. Loyal supporters, including ma
journalists, mourned the passing of an icon and, w
rage over the hypocrisies of American life.

WILHELM REICH (1

Brilliant but dumb, if you know what we mean, a
playing with a full deck. His early Marxist-Freudi
such as the idea that you can't revolutionize politic
people who make them, or that thinking about y
you neurotic. And we'll lay dollars to doughnuts
show up as tight muscles and shallow breathing, a
sis on the regenerative powers of the orgasm se
even at the time. But it wasn't until his discover
force which he found to be bluish green in color—
moved to the other end of the bus. Before you c
ergy," Reich was babbling about cosmic orgone
from other planets and comparing himself to su
Socrates, Nietzsche, and Woodrow Wilson (tha
died in a federal penitentiary in 1957, having be
FBI and convicted, finally, of transporting emp
lines.

RICAN STUDIES 45

major asset to their cause, he
e. It wasn't long after that that
was life outside Hunter's hotel
discovered John Belushi. For
at all, much less care what he
ut he turned out to be smarter
e; he resurfaced in the early
shoes, as the subject of three,

out, was more than Faulkner
n portrayed as a drug-addled

in the past (or, as he once re­
ut in the wilderness"). And he
years; even his voluntary exile
by boomers—the very people
—who invaded nearby Aspen,
g bitterly about Dr. Gonzo's
es while under the influence,
on died in 2005, from a self-
t of people seemed to take the
any high-profile writers and
with it, a healthy sense of out­

897-1957)

and certainly, by the end, not
ian notions made some sense,
cs without revolutionizing the
yourself constantly can make
trauma really does eventually
although, frankly, his empha­
eemed a little simple-minded
ry of orgone energy—the life
—that some of us got up and
could say "deadly orgone en­
engineers—"CORE men"—
uch historic martyrs as Jesus,
at "great, warm person"). He
een hounded for years by the
pty orgone boxes across state

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

GEORGE IVA
(

The Paul Bunyan of mystics,
through the wilds of Asia and
gating the River Kabul on a r
mountain passes, chatting up
sand" Egypt, digging through
soaking up ancient wisdom an
he learned, we suggest you do
you: H i s summa, All and Every
could try wading through the
mathematician who was Gur
however, that Gurdjieff thoug
him. Never mind. Just ask your
a man who once raised cash
canaries?" If your answer is n
anyway.

Fa

A BRIEF HI
POLIT

The symbology (donkey an
Thurmond) seems carved
national committees and electo
Imagine your surprise, then, w
the first time back in fifth grad
tain majesties and all, began
George Washington—whose e
posed, and who at one point f
the President"—was above eve
the Founding Fathers conside
periwigs, to be unscrupulous
James Madison, for instance, w
ing majorities on specific iss
should) fall away once the issue

EDUCATION

ANOVITCH GURDJIEFF
(1874-1949)

, Gurdjieff spent twenty years pursuing "truth"
d North Africa, crossing the Gobi on stilts, navi­
raft, clambering blindfolded through vertiginous

dervishes and seers, unearthing a map of "pre-
h ruins, hanging out in a secret monastery, and
nd esoteric knowledge. If you're wondering what
the same, as Gurdjieff certainly isn't going to tell
ything, is 1,266 pages in search of an editor. You
e explications o f P. D . Ouspensky, the Russian
djieff's top disciple for a while, remembering,
ght Ouspensky was an ass for trying to explicate
rself, "Would I really buy spiritual guidance from

by dyeing sparrows yellow and selling them as
no, you probably would have missed the point

amily Feud

ISTORY OF AMERICAN

TICAL PARTIES

nd elephant, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Strom
d in stone and the structure (wards and precincts,
oral colleges) as intrinsically American as a BLT.
when we remind you of something you learned for
de, namely, that this nation of ours, purple moun­

its life without any political parties whatsoever.
election in 1788 had been unanimous and unop­
found himself being addressed as "Your Highness
en thinking in terms of party loyalty. The rest of
red "factions," as they put it, straightening their

gangs hell-bent on picking the public pocket.
while an old hand at lining up votes and establish­
ues, assumed that those majorities would (and
e in question had been resolved.

AME

But then there was Alexander Hamilton, who
foreign policy to Washington and domestic poli
part of two administrations, finally gave Madiso
to take action against him. Hamilton was a North
to a state's rightser), an industrialist, a venture c
Jefferson you know about: Southerner, agrarian
Renaissance man. Thus began the power struggl
in the formation of two rival parties—Hamilton
Democratic Republicans, ancestors of our Republ
tively.

The blow-by-blow (including how Jefferson b
difference between Jeffersonian and Jacksonian de
other time. In the meantime, take a look at this ch

Round 1 DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS
(1796, Jefferson, Madison, et al.—
the South and landowning interests)

T I M E OUT: Monroes factionless

Round 2 DEMOCRATS*
(1832, Andrew Jackson—as above, p
small farmers, backwoods types,
"little guys" in general)

Round 3

Round 4 DEMOCRATS*
(FDR—dominant 1932 through 196
Northeasterners and, in the old days,
Southerners, city dwellers, blue-colla
workers, Catholics, liberals, ethnics)

*Dominant party.

RICAN STUDIES 47

o, having managed to dictate
icy to Congress for the better
n and Jefferson no choice but
herner, a federalist (as opposed
capitalist, and a power broker.
n, progressive, and all-around
le that would result, by 1796,
n's Federalists and Jefferson's
licans and Democrats, respec­

ested Hamilton and what the
emocracy is) we'll save for an­
hart for the big picture:

S* FEDERALISTS
(1792, Hamilton, John Adams, et al.—
the North and commercial interests;
gone by 1816)

"Era of Good Feelings," 1817-1824

NATIONAL REPUBLICANS
plus (1828, J . CL Adams, Henry Clay—as

above, plus border-states residents;
gone by 1832)

WHIGS
(as above, plus anti-Jackson Demo­
crats)

REPUBLICANS
(1856, Abraham Lincoln—Northerners,
urbanités, business types, factory
workers, blacks)

REPUBLICANS
60s, (Midwesterners, businessmen, farmers,
, white-collar workers, Protestants, the
ar "Establishment," plus right-to-lifers, religious

fundamentalists, and social conservatives in
general)

84 A N I N C O M P L E T E

Note that for almost two hun
have been lined up against e
Moose, Robert LaFollette's P
and, more recently, George Wa
for political commentators try
with the electorate. (By contr
1992 presidential election, bu
America was technically not
league.") Nor is this a countr
could define, coalition as a pol

As to how you can distingu
tent ourselves with quoting fro
minators to kill their bugs; De
the books that have been bann
mittees and read the books as a
publicans hang theirs on the
drawn, although there is seldo
to and don't."

Back to you, George.

Ameri

FIVE TALES
PARANOIA,
INCOMPETENCE
LONG BEFORE

'HE TWEED RING: The ga
-L like a private kingdom th
"Boss" Tweed and operating th
tic political machine, these bo
Although the "boss" system w
were always, by their very nat
with votes in return for favors)
litical clout and uninhibited c
city out of at least $30 milli
$40,000 in stock as a bribe for

E EDUCATION

dred years the same two parties, variously named,
each other; third parties—Teddy Roosevelt's Bull
Progressive Action, Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrats,
allace's American Independence—while a godsend
ying to fill column inches, have had little success
rast, H . Ross Perot had surprising success in the
ut don't get too excited: Perot's United We Stand

a political party at all, just a not-for-profit "civic
y where we think much of, or where most of us
litical form.
ish Republicans from Democrats today, we'll con­
om a letter from a friend: "Republicans hire exter­
emocrats step on them... . Democrats buy most of
ed somewhere; Republicans form censorship com­
a group. . . . Democrats eat the fish they catch; Re­
wall. . . . Republicans tend to keep their shades
om any reason why they should; Democrats ought

ican

OF AMBITION, GREED,

AND MIND-BOGGLING

E THAT TOOK PLACE

THE INVASION OF IRAQ

ang of crooked politicians that ran New York City
hroughout the mid-1800s. Led by William Marcy
hrough Tammany, New York's powerful Democra­
oys were the stuff old gangster movies are made of.
as widespread in those days and political machines
ture, corrupt (essentially, they provided politicians
), none could match the Tweed Ring for sheer po­
criminality. During its reign, the group bilked the
ion (a conservative estimate); Tweed himself got
getting the Brooklyn Bridge project approved and

AMER

R E F O R M T W E E D . "If all the people want is to have somebody arrested,
convicted. You will be allowed to escape; nobody will be hurt; and the

White House, and I to Albany as Governor."

a lot more for manipulating the sale of the land t
also got himself elected to the state senate. The r
1870s through the dogged efforts of the New Yor
toonist Thomas Nast (whose caricatures helped
with-a-heart-of-gold public image), and Samuel T
with his eye on the presidency. Tweed died in pri
synonymous with political corruption, some comm
out crooks like him, there never would have been
country built.
CRÉDIT MOBILIER: One of the worst pre-Enron fina
tacky affair took place during the notoriously incom
S. Grant and revolved around the building of the
most visible villain was Oakes Ames, a director of
the House of Representatives. When Congress a

RICAN STUDIES 49

, I'll have you plunderers
en TILDEN will go to the
"

that is now Central Park. H e
ring was finally broken in the
rk Times, Harpers Weekly car­

demolish Tweed s gangster-
Tilden, a Democratic reformer

son; though his name is now
mentators point out that with­

enough incentive to get this

ancial scandals on record, this
mpetent presidency of Ulysses
e Union Pacific Railroad. Its
the railroad and a member of
agreed to pick up the tab for

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

building the Union Pacific, Am
than the amount granted, got
Crédit Mobilier, a dummy con
divert excess funds into their p
1869, it was heavily in debt a
million in profits. To be on the
to some of his favorite congre
make history, he wrote a lette
"where it would do the most g
Naturally, the newspapers got
however, that although the lis
dent, none was ever prosecute
big fuss was about. After all, th
history? They got the job done
the Union Pacific anymore?

TEAPOT DOME: An oil scandal
ren G . Harding, generally ack
presidents ever. Secretary of t
give him control of the U.S. na
Dome, Wyoming. A year later
two private oil companies, one
other for $85,000 cash, some s
before the secret leaked and ev

E EDUCATION

mes, who knew the job could be done for much less
together with some other stockholders to form the
nstruction corporation. They used the company to
pockets. By the time the project was completed in
nd Ames and his friends had skimmed about $23
e safe side, Ames passed out Crédit Mobilier stock
essmen. Then, in one of those priceless moves that
r to a friend telling him he'd distributed the stock
good" and listing the names of the lucky recipients.
hold of the letter, and you can guess the rest. Note,
st implicated officials as high up as the vice presi­
ed. In fact, some historians now wonder what the
hey say, what's a few million dollars in the nation's
e, didn't they? Yes, but on the other hand, who rides

that took place during the administration of War­
nowledged to have been one of the most worthless
the Interior Albert B . Fall persuaded Harding to
aval oil reserves at Elk Hill, California, and Teapot
r, Fall secretly leased the reserves to the owners of
e in exchange for a personal "loan" of $100,000, the
shares of stock, and a herd of cattle. It wasn't long
verybody was up before a Senate investigating com-

AMER

mittee. In yet another remarkable verdict, all three
Fall was later tried on lesser charges and became th
go to prison. Meanwhile, the public was outraged t
at all; this was, as you'll recall, the Roaring Twen
doing the Charleston or making shady deals the
newspapers accused the Senate of character assassi
erally acting in poor taste.

T H E SACCO-VANZETTI CASE: People still seem to ta
Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian imm
two people during an armed robbery in Massachus
took place in the wake of the wave of national hyste
was a joke; the public was paranoid about immig
made it clear that he knew what to expect from
make matters worse, Sacco and Vanzetti were
owned guns. Although there was no hard evidence
victed and sentenced to death. The case became a
and people like Felix Frankfurter, John Dos Passo
lay spent years pressing for a retrial. When Sacco a
trocuted in 1927, everyone was convinced that
collapsed. In the end, liberalism didn't die, of cours
came martyrs, with poems and plays written about
ballistics tests conducted in 1961 seemed to prove
let used in the robbery did indeed come from Sac
looks like Vanzetti might have been innocent.

THE PUMPKIN PAPERS: A misnomer, referring to the
another story of Red-baiting and questionable going
body feels all that bad about this one; they just love t
Hiss, a former high official in the State Departme
Chambers, a senior editor at Time magazine and a
liver secret information to the Russians. Nobody bel
Nixon, then an ambitious young lawyer out to make
case. Soon afterward, Chambers suddenly produced
crofilm (not "papers" at all) that he claimed to have h
Maryland farm. These, along with an old typewriter
were the famous props on which the case against h
and the government bent the law in order to try Hiss
on the alleged crime had run out. He was convicted
jail; Nixon's fortunes were—or seemed to be—made
ever; new evidence and new theories keep popping u
Poe story. The most recent appeared in October 1

RICAN STUDIES 5?

men were acquitted, although
he first cabinet member ever to
that the Senate had prosecuted
nties, when everyone was busy
mselves. Even the New York
ination, mudslinging, and gen-

ake this one personally. Nicola
migrants accused of murdering

setts in 1920. The trial, which
eria known as the "Red Scare,"
rants and the presiding judge
people who talked funny. T o
avowed anarchists who both
e against them, they were con-
an international cause célèbre,
os, and Edna St. Vincent Mil-
and Vanzetti were finally elec-

the whole liberal cause had
se, and Sacco and Vanzetti be-

them. Unfortunately, modern
conclusively that the fatal bul-
cco's gun. Never mind, it still

Alger Hiss case. It is essentially
gs-on in the courtroom, but no-
to argue about it. In 1948 Alger
nt, was accused by Whittaker
former spy, of helping him de-
lieved Chambers until Richard
a name for himself, took on his
d five rolls of incriminating mi-
hidden inside a pumpkin on his

supposedly belonging to Hiss,
im rested. Nixon pushed hard,
s after the statute of limitations
and served almost four years in
e. The case just won't die, how-
up like ghosts in an Edgar Allan
1992, when a Russian general

5* AN I N C O M P L E T E

named Vblkogonov, chairman
that in examining the newly op
Hiss. He concluded that the c
Hiss fans celebrated, and the ne
gonov recanted, saying, well, he
was more like he'd chatted with
Hiss foes celebrated, while at l
that Nixon may have had a wo
pened to be Volkogonov's boss.
Hiss was entirely innocent; on

Famou

TWELVE SUPR
WORTH

Why worth knowing? Bec
stitution that was never
legislative powers that cancel e
all talking at once, it can be mig
less make either stand up in cou
dom and what's a felony until n
scratched their heads, and mad
justices are able to agree on any

The Supreme Court
in 1921. That's
Justice Brandeis in
the back row, far
left; Oliver Wendell
Holmes is seated
secondfromright.

E EDUCATION

of Russia's military-intelligence archives, declared
pened K G B files, he'd found nothing to incriminate
charges against Hiss were "completely groundless."
ews media headlined the story for days. Then Vblko­
e hadn't actually gone through all the files himself, it
h a couple of former K G B agents for a few minutes.
least one pro-Hiss political commentator suggested
ord with Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who hap­
. T h e upshot: To this day, nobody quite believes that
the other hand, they're sure Nixon wasn't.

us Last Words

REME COURT DECISIONS

KNOWING BY NAME

cause in a country with a two-hundred-year-old con­
r very nuts-and-bolts in the first place, executive and
each other out, and a couple hundred million people
ghty tricky to tell our rights from our wrongs, much
urt. In the end, none of us can be sure of what's a free­
nine cantankerous justices have smoothed their robes,
de up their minds. And lately, given how rarely the
ything, even that doesn't seem to help.

AMER

MARBURYv. MADISON

You may know this one only by name, given the c
that we've all had a lot on our minds since 1803. N
gle most important decision ever handed down by
lished the right of judicial review, without which th
Court decisions worth knowing by name.

The plot gets complicated, but it's worth the ef
appointed a district-court judge by outgoing presid
bub of changing administrations, however, the com
paper—never got delivered. When the new secret
refused to honor the appointment, Marbury appea
issue a writ of mandamus, which would force the ne
his commission. Now forget Marbury, Madison, a
"mandamus" for the moment; what was really goin
tween John Marshall, newly appointed chief justice
able Federalist, and Thomas Jefferson, newly ele
States and our most determined anti-Federalist. M
innumerable last-minute judgeships handed out by
an effort to "pack the courts" before the anti-Fede
elections by a landslide, swept them into permane
the anti-Federalists were furious at what they cons
matters even worse, Marshall himself was one of th
appointed just before Jefferson's inauguration; and
shall's brother who had neglected to deliver Marb
place.

By all standards of propriety, Marshall should h
pulco while this case was being argued. Instead, h
managing to turn it into the classic mix of law
art. First, he declared that Marbury was theoretical
Second—and here's the twister—he denied Marbu
that the part of the law that allowed the Supreme
damus in this sort of case was unconstitutional, and

The results: (1) Marbury got to keep his dignity
was appeased because Marbury didn't get the job;
frontation with the president it would certainly hav
power to enforce a writ of mandamus even if it had
and (4) most important, the Court officially establ
of the constitutionality of any law passed by Con
teously denying itself a power. This last point m
equal—in a checks-and-balances sort of way—of b

RICAN STUDIES 53

N (1803)

catchy alliteration and the fact
Nevertheless, this was the sin­
y the Court because it estab­
here wouldn't be any Supreme

ffort. John Marbury had been
dent John Adams. In the hub­
mmission—the actual piece of
tary of state, James Madison,
aled to the Supreme Court to
ew administration to give him
and the meaning of the word
g on was a power struggle be­
e of the Court and an unshak­
ected president of the United
arbury's had been only one of
y the lame-duck Federalists in
eralists, who had just won the
ent oblivion. Understandably,
sidered a dirty trick. To make
ese so called midnight judges,
d, as it happened, it was Mar­
bury's commission in the first

have been vacationing in Aca-
he wrote the opinion himself,

and politics that approaches
lly entitled to his commission.
ury's petition on the grounds

Court to issue writs of man­
d therefore null and void.
y, if nothing else; (2) Jefferson

(3) the Court avoided a con­
ve lost, since it didn't have the
d had the power to issue one;
lished itself as the final arbiter
ngress, and it did so by righ­
made the Court the effective
both Congress and the presi-

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

dent. And let's not forget that
the soul of judicial integrity, n
seeker, but because the law he
free to spend the next thirty-fiv
American history according to

McCULLOCH

Why should you care about a c
ing notes issued by the Second
ally in question was the con
brouhaha was symbolic of the
to run this show, the federal go
shall not had his way, we migh
that couldn't see eye-to-eye on
prayer of pooling their resource

The controversy over the est
was still smoldering in the hea
rage came along. They argued
had exceeded its constitutional
whatever they wanted to as lon

Marshall, who, as you'll rec
strong Union, scored the bigge
constitutionality of the Bank's i
ments that subsequently becam
worked the opposition's argum
gress specifically empowered to
stitution speaks in a broad lang
of human affairs." He also clai
tral government supreme over
cluded that the Maryland tax w
to destroy," and it just wouldn't
by an inferior one. H e neatly s

Let the end be legitimat
and all means which are a
which are not prohibited
stitution are constitutiona

EDUCATION

(5) Marshall came away from the case looking like
not only because he'd rejected a Federalist place-
e'd overturned was a Federalist law. This left him
ve years interpreting the Constitution and shaping
o his own brilliant, but decidedly Federalist, views.

v. MARYLAND (1819)

ase that prevented the state of Maryland from tax­
d Bank of the United States? Because what was re­
nstitutionality of the Bank itself, and the Bank

major preoccupation of the day: Who was going
vernment or the individual states? Had John Mar­
ht have ended up as a loose confederation of states
n anything, and that certainly wouldn't have had a
es to produce a Miss America pageant.
tablishment of the First Bank of the United States
arts of states' rights advocates when this new out­
that by incorporating the Second Bank, Congress
powers and that, in any event, the states could tax
ng as it was on their turf.
call, was an ardent Federalist with a vision of a
st win of his career with this one. In upholding the
incorporation, he managed to fire off several state­
me classics of American law. For instance, he deftly
ment—that nowhere in the constitution was Con­
o charter a bank—into the premise that the Con­
uage so that it can be "adapted to the various crises
imed that the sovereign people had made the cen­
all rivals within the sphere of its powers, and con­
was invalid because "the power to tax is the power
t make sense to let a supreme power be destroyed
ummed up the whole thing:

e, let it be within the scope of the Constitution,
appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end,

but consist with the letter and spirit of the Con­
al.

AME

Thus, with a few well-chosen words, Marshall
for all, the supremacy of national over state govern
Civil War to come, but the theory, at least, was now
tablished both the federal government's—and, by
to make what was henceforth to be known as a "lo
stitution. Which, of course, is another way of sayi

DRED SCOTT v. SANFO

Yes, Dred Scott was a slave; no, he had nothing
Harpers Ferry. Nearly everyone seems to have a me
story straight, even if it is a bit of a downer. Dred S
who sued his master, claiming that he had been
been taken first to Illinois, a free state, then to th
slavery had been forbidden by the Missouri Comp

The case was a real cliff-hanger; not only did the
but, given the year, there was, naturally, a lot more
few legal loopholes. The whole country was waitin
get control of the new western territories. If the sla
tionalizing slavery there, it would mean more vot
agrarian South. If the antislavery states got their
greater concentration of power for the industrial N
threatened, it would secede.

Finally, Chief Justice Roger Taney delivered the
Southern Court. First, he ruled, Negroes were not
(they had, as he put it, "no rights any white man wa
not, therefore, entitled to go around suing people
could have stopped there, but it chose to go for the
couldn't possibly have been freed by his stay in the
Minnesota wasn't free territory. In fact, Congress h
ritory since, in so doing, it had violated the Fif
Southerners of their right to property. Ergo, the M
constitutional, null, and void. The South, natura
Court's shining hour, while Northerners began to
higher law than the Constitution, after all.

HAMMER v. DAGENHAR

Once the Civil War had dispatched the federal/st
turned its attention to the country's latest concern

RICAN STUDIES 55

not only proclaimed, once and
nment (well, there was still the
w down on paper), but also es­
y extension, the Court's—right
oose construction" of the Con­
ing it's anybody's ball game.

ORD (1857)

g to do with John Brown or
ental block here, so let's get the
Scott was a Missouri black man
automatically freed by having
he Minnesota Territory, where
promise.
e Court take forever to decide,
e at stake than one man and a
ng to see who would ultimately
ave states succeeded in institu­
tes and political power for the
r way, it would mean an even
North; in which case, the South

e opinion for a predominantly
t citizens of the United States
as bound to respect") and were
e. Petition denied. The Court
extra point: Scott, it declared,
e Minnesota Territory because
had no right to create free ter­
fth Amendment by depriving
Missouri Compromise was un­
ally, saw this as the Supreme
mutter that maybe there was a

RT (1918)

ate power struggle, the Court
: getting rich. Making Amer-

S*. AN I N C O M P L E T E

ica wealthy involved yet anothe
and business. Now the justice
money corner, and spent the r
considerable repertoire of jud
government interference. Fro
handed down a series of decis
regulations, promoting the pr
rich get richer. By the early tw
only against government, but a
growing labor movement) and

Hammer v. Dagenhart was
spirit of the age. In it, the Cou
child labor. The act prohibited
produced in factories employi
ing children under sixteen. (If
the Court had already ruled it
manufacture of goods in any w
hart, who had two sons worki
determined to keep them ther
with a large family to feed, Da
their comfortable support and
vatism and consistent success i
finally led to Franklin Rooseve
tices friendly to the New Deal
for reform, of course, so feel f
crats) for the development of t

SCHENCKv.

The case that set the bottom
Justice Oliver Wendell Holm
Court's most historic statemen

The most stringent pro
falsely shouting fire in a
every case is whether the
such a nature as to creat
the substantive evils that
proximity and degree. . .
be said in time of peace
ance will not be endured
gard them as being prote

E EDUCATION

er wrestling match, this time between government
es leapt into the ring, headed straight for the big-
remainder of the Gilded Age utilizing their now-
dicial maneuvers to defend vested wealth against
om Reconstruction through the Depression, they
sions that succeeded in blocking federal and state
rinciple of laissez-faire, and generally helping the
wentieth century, the Court found itself pitted not
against what it saw as the menace of socialism (the
d the clamor of the masses (social reform).

one of the more memorable illustrations of the
urt overturned a congressional act designed to limit
d interstate or foreign commerce of commodities

ng children under fourteen and in mines employ­
the legislation seems a bit roundabout, it's because
t unconstitutional for Congress to interfere in the
way.) T h e suit, by the way, was brought by Dagen­
ing in a North Carolina cotton mill and who was
re. Describing himself as "a man of small means"
agenhart claimed that he needed the boys' pay "for
d maintenance." The Court's unshakable conser­
in such cases blocked social legislation for years and
elt's notorious efforts to "pack the court" with jus­
l. The Court did eventually bow to public pressure
free to hold it responsible (along with the D e m o ­
the "welfare state."

UNITED STATES (1919)

line on freedom of speech and, in so doing, gave
es the opportunity to make one of the Supreme
nts:

otection of free speech would not protect a man
a theatre and causing panic. . . . The question in
e words are used in such circumstances and are of
te a clear and present danger that will bring about
t Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of
. . When a nation is at war many things that might
are such a hindrance to its effort that their utter­

so long as men fight and that no Court could re­
ected by any constitutional right.