The Way We Were

In his superb memoir of the Pacific war, William Manchester reminds us that we are many people in the course of a lifetime. “In our memories, as in our dreams,” he writes, “there are set-pieces which live on and on, overriding what happened afterward.” Thus in the 1980s, with their special challenges, my mind is pulled back to the way we were—my generation—in the years after World War II. 1946 and 1947 were decisive years in my intellectual development and in the shaping of the mind of the nation, after all the dying of wartime and the happy departure of the grim economic conditions that had characterized the pre-war years.

No two eras are alike. Each moment in time is unique. Each little group has its own perceptions, of the world around it and new worlds being born. Each has its own special sense of place and change. So it was for those of us who came to know one another at Bard College on the Hudson River in the fall of 1946. The members of that group are lost to me, some by death, others by different modes of thought, goals, interests, achievements, and failures. At the time, we never realized the future would be an alienating force.

AH

About the Author

Anthony H. Harrigan

Featured Tags

Manage following

Conservatism

Russell Kirk

William F. Buckley Jr.

In his superb memoir of the Pacific war, William Manchester reminds us that we are many people in the course of a lifetime. “In our memories, as in our dreams,” he writes, “there are set-pieces which live on and on, overriding what happened afterward.” Thus in the 1980s, with their special challenges, my mind is pulled back to the way we were—my generation—in the years after World War II. 1946 and 1947 were decisive years in my intellectual development and in the shaping of the mind of the nation, after all the dying of wartime and the happy departure of the grim economic conditions that had characterized the pre-war years.

No two eras are alike. Each moment in time is unique. Each little group has its own perceptions, of the world around it and new worlds being born. Each has its own special sense of place and change. So it was for those of us who came to know one another at Bard College on the Hudson River in the fall of 1946. The members of that group are lost to me, some by death, others by different modes of thought, goals, interests, achievements, and failures. At the time, we never realized the future would be an alienating force.