Random Notes

■ Harper’s Bizarre: Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper’s Magazine, once made a practice of hiring writers and editors across the political spectrum. Over the past few years, though, something in him has evolved leftward, and that evolution may nearly have done a fellow named John Taft out of a book, a television series, and two years of work.

What happened? Taft won’t say. As for Lapham, asked to comment on Harper & Row’s fall catalogue, which describes the book as “a companion to the six-part series narrated by Lewis H. Lapham,” the editor says H&R “made that up. The series has got nothing to do with the book. Maybe it did at its inception, but I saw that catalogue with great surprise.” A look at both series and companion suggest an additional, political interpretation. Taft’s basically centrist book offers a straightforward account of what its subtitle calls The Rise and Decline of U.S. Globalism, 1918-1988. On the other hand, even the New York Times describes America’s Century as an exercise in “America-bashing.” Take, for example, part four, “The Imperial Masquerade,” which treats of Fifties and Sixties anti-Communism. Particular attention is paid to the CIA and its “criminal activities,” and to John Foster Dulles, newsreel clips of whom appear repeatedly on the screen to the accompaniment of music straight off the soundtrack to Nightmare on Elm Street. On the subject of the Vietnam War, in contemporary footage General Giap appears as a guest commentator, invoking George Washington and the Declaration of Independence. Taft, on the other hand, argues merely that Vietnam was probably a hopeless cause; he prefers phrases like “the throw of the dice that failed.” American internationalism, he admits, may well have had its own “special nature and justification.” And so it goes.

Featured Tags

Declaration of Independence

■ Harper’s Bizarre: Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper’s Magazine, once made a practice of hiring writers and editors across the political spectrum. Over the past few years, though, something in him has evolved leftward, and that evolution may nearly have done a fellow named John Taft out of a book, a television series, and two years of work.

What happened? Taft won’t say. As for Lapham, asked to comment on Harper & Row’s fall catalogue, which describes the book as “a companion to the six-part series narrated by Lewis H. Lapham,” the editor says H&R “made that up. The series has got nothing to do with the book. Maybe it did at its inception, but I saw that catalogue with great surprise.” A look at both series and companion suggest an additional, political interpretation. Taft’s basically centrist book offers a straightforward account of what its subtitle calls The Rise and Decline of U.S. Globalism, 1918-1988. On the other hand, even the New York Times describes America’s Century as an exercise in “America-bashing.” Take, for example, part four, “The Imperial Masquerade,” which treats of Fifties and Sixties anti-Communism. Particular attention is paid to the CIA and its “criminal activities,” and to John Foster Dulles, newsreel clips of whom appear repeatedly on the screen to the accompaniment of music straight off the soundtrack to Nightmare on Elm Street. On the subject of the Vietnam War, in contemporary footage General Giap appears as a guest commentator, invoking George Washington and the Declaration of Independence. Taft, on the other hand, argues merely that Vietnam was probably a hopeless cause; he prefers phrases like “the throw of the dice that failed.” American internationalism, he admits, may well have had its own “special nature and justification.” And so it goes.