The Bankruptcy of American Optimism

Europe, says the author, created the myth of America as the land of honor—a myth which America also believed. But the ordeal of Hungary has tried us, and proved us empty

The picture of Europe burnt into the folklore of the American consciousness is so well known it is almost embarrassing to detail it. We were the people of the future, they of the past; we stood for progress, they for decay; we for the clean and the civic and the responsible, they for the piracy of individualism and the chaos of selfish reaction. The very existence of our expatriates of the twenties and the literature of protest against Babbitry heightened the dominant self-assurance of the American consciousness.