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Lewis H. Lapham

Lewis H. Lapham Books

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“Further strengthenings of the self-centered instinct for survival recruit even greater numbers of people into some sort of ring of fellowship (church or gender, red state or blue) by populating the terra incognita outside the ring with enough barbarians to verify the existence of a civilization within--to define the preferred stock by what, as all good people agree, it decidedly is not.”

PeopleSelfStatesEnoughChurchNumbersExistenceGreaterCivilizationSurvivalRedAgreeBlueInstinctGenderRingsGood PeopleFellowshipSelf CenteredBarbariansStrengtheningRecruitVerifyPreferred Stock
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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“Usually when I drank too much, I could guess why I did so, the objective being to murder a state of consciousness that I didn't have the courage to sustain--a fear of heights, which sometimes during the carnival of the 1960s accompanied my attempts to transform the bourgeois journalist into an avant-garde novelist. The stepped-up ambition was a commonplace among the would-be William Faulkners of my generation; nearly always it resulted in commercial failure and literary embarrassment.”

SometimesStatesWould BeConsciousnessToo MuchGenerationsAmbitionMurderObjectivesJournalistNovelistsHeight1960sEmbarrassmentDrankCommonplaceBourgeoisMy GenerationAvant GardeStates Of ConsciousnessCarnivals
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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“Tardiness is next to wickedness in a society relentless in its consumption of time as both a good and a service--as tweet and Instagram, film clip and sound bite, as sporting event, investment opportunity, Tinder hookup, and interest rate--its value measured not by its texture or its substance but by the speed of its delivery, a distinction apparent to Andy Warhol when he supposedly said that any painting that takes longer than five minutes to make is a bad painting.”

SaidFilmValuesNextOpportunitySoundInterestFiveMinutesEventsPaintingInvestmentRateSpeedSubstanceDistinctionBitesConsumptionWickednessFive MinutesRelentlessInstagramTextureTweetDeliveryInterest RateClipWarholSound BitesSporting EventsTinderTardiness
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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“Let the rabbit of free enterprise out of its velveteen bag and too many people would have to be fired, too much idiocy exposed to the light of judgment or ridicule, too much vanity sacrificed to the fires of efficiency. Such a catastrophe obviously would threaten the American way of life, to say nothing of the belief in free markets.”

PeopleWayLightBeliefFireToo MuchJudgmentVanityEnterpriseBagsExposedEfficiencyCatastropheRidiculeFree MarketRabbitsFree EnterpriseIdiocyAmerican Way Of Life
Book:Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion
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“The playing field is more sacred than the stock exchange, more blessed than Capital Hill or the vaults of Fort Knox. The diamond and the gridiron -- and, to a lesser degree, the court, the rink, the track, and the ring -- embody the American dream of Eden.”

DreamFieldsDegreesBlessedSacredCourtTrackRingsHillsDiamondAmerican DreamEdenPlaying FieldsFortsVaultsStock ExchangeGridiron
Book:Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion
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“As a child growing up in the precincts of wealth, and later as a college student, newspaper reporter and resident of New York's Upper East Side, I got used to listening to the talk of financial killings and sexual misalliance that animates the conversation of the rich and the familiars of the rich.”

ChildrenUsedSidesWealthGrowing UpRichGrowingNew YorkStudentsCollegeListeningConversationKillingFinancialEastNewspapersReportersResidentsCollege StudentsChildren Growing UpEast SideGrowing ChildrenNewspaper ReportersUpper East Side
Book:Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion
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“What joins the Americans one to another is not a common ancestry, language or race, but a shared work of the imagination that looks forward to the making of a future, not backward to the insignia of the past. Their enterprise is underwritten by a Constitution that allows for the widest horizons of sight and the broadest range of expression, supports the liberties of the people as opposed to the ambitions of the state, and stands as premise for a narrative rather than plan for an invasion or a monument. The narrative was always plural; not one story, many stories.”

PeopleLooksStatesStoriesAmericaPastLanguageImaginationCommonRaceLibertySupportPlansExpressionAmbitionSightConstitutionNarrativeRangeEnterpriseHorizonMonumentInvasionPremisesAncestry
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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“Rumors and reports of man's relation with animals are the world's oldest news stories, headlined in the stars of the zodiac, posted on the walls of prehistoric caves, inscribed in the languages of Egyptian myth, Greek philosophy, Hindu religion, Christian art, our own DNA. Belonging within the circle of mankind's intimate acquaintance ... constant albeit speechless companions, they supplied energies fit to be harnessed or roasted.”

MenWorldArtPhilosophyStoriesChristianEnergyLanguageStarsAnimalMankindWallFitNewsRelationConstantMythCirclesGreekIntimateReportsCompanionBelongingCavesDnaAcquaintanceRumorEgyptianSpeechlessReligion ChristianPrehistoricZodiacNews StoriesHindu ReligionGreek PhilosophyChristian Art
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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“About the presence of death and dying I don't remember the society in the 1950s being so skittish as it has since become. People still died at home, among relatives and friends, often in the care of a family physician. Death was still to be seen sitting in the parlor, hanging in a butcher shop, sometimes lying in the street.”

PeopleStillsSometimesHomeCareRememberDeathLyingStreetsDyingSittingDiedShopsDeath And DyingPhysiciansButchersParlorRelatives And Friends
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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“The mystical nature of American consumption accounts for its joylessness. We spend a great deal of time in stores, but if we don't seem to take much pleasure in our buying, it's because we're engaged in the acts of sacrifice and self-definition. Abashed in the presence of expensive merchandise, we recognize ourselves . . . as suppliants admitted to a shrine.”

IfsSelfSeemsPleasureDealsSacrificeAccountsDefinitionsStoresEngagedExpensiveBuyingConsumptionMysticalShrinesMerchandise
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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