Books

"How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?” screamed the exasperated headline in a British newspaper after the George Bush victory, expressing the elitist attitude about America in much of “old” Europe and in our own “old” American media, entertainment industry, and academia. Although this attitude arose from the 2004 election results, the American electorate's defiance of the opinions of the elitists is deeper than any political or other “global test” they may wish to give us. The defiance reflects the underlying exceptionalism established earlier in our American Revolution against a European Crown that later rejected subsequent European ideologies-ranging from Fascism to Communism-and now the ideology de jour of Islamofascism.

Whatever the context, American exceptionalism implicates this country's current and future roles in the modern world. The question should be, why we are so exceptional?

The thoughts that led to the modern world and American exceptionalism in it are explained in The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments (2004). In these reflections, American historian Gertrude Himmelfarb distinguishes three lines of Enlightenment thought: the path of British moral philosophers extolling personal and public virtues expressed through political economy; the French philosophes exalting abstract reason; and the American Founding Fathers, who established our “politics of liberty.” She concludes that America combines virtue and reason with liberty better than Europe, and explains that among our exceptional attributes “Americans take for granted what Europeans regard as an inexplicable paradox: that the United States is the most capitalistic and at the same time the most moralistic of countries.”

Exemplifying Enlightenment ideals, America shines a light of liberty to the world. It threatens the Islamofascists, of course, and they are trying to extinguish it. Our responses to their terrorism are examined in Surprise, Security, and the American Experience (2004). In these endowed lectures, Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis explains how our responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11 have sound historical precedent. Preemption, unilateralism and hegemony, now expressed in the Bush Doctrine, are parts of earlier American experiences, as Gaddis explains through comparisons with our responses to the British burning of Washington during the War of 1812 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 that brought us into World War II. He does so with an eloquence and patriotism rarely expressed in academia.

THE COUSINS

From a British perspective, William Shawcross explains in Allies: the U.S., Britain, Europe, and the War in Iraq (2004) why we had to invade Iraq and end Saddam Hussein's regime, and he excoriates the French and Germans for opposing us. Shawcross acknowledges that we have made mistakes in Iraq, especially in intelligence and postwar administration and security, but he concludes that the alternatives to success “are too terrible to contemplate.” Despite our faults, he sees us as the only country with “both the power and the optimism to defend the international community against what really are forces of darkness.”

Beyond the War on Terrorism, two books provide provocative perspectives on America's broader roles in the modern world. In The Case for Sovereignty: Why the World Should Welcome American Independence (2004), Cornell political philosopher Jeremy Rabkin explains how the idea of sovereignty arose during the Enlightenment and since has fostered democracy and other political virtues. Despite those past successes, Rabkin sees sovereignty threatened now by internationalists who prefer its subordination to global governance. He warns that Americans must preserve a sovereign and independent structure under which we “can live together in confidence and mutual respect, as fellow citizens of the same solid republic.” In Colossus: The Price of American Empire (2004), British historian Niall Ferguson, who now holds an endowed chair at New York University and a fellowship at the Hoover Institution at Stanford while maintaining a post at Oxford, explains that we have an American “empire” even as we dare not call it such. An authority on the British Empire, he urges that we learn from it and assure an “empire of liberty” for world peace and order. The world depends on our existing economic and military power, but Ferguson sees it needing and awaiting a long-term American perseverance in asserting that power.

While American independence and “empire” engender much anti-Americanism, French intellectual Jean-Francois Revel defends America against our European critics in Anti-Americanism (2002, English translation 2003). Europeans are anti-American, he explains, because they are blinded by stale socialist dogma and are against global capitalism-in short, they are against liberty. Through their ideological lenses, they see a split screen of wrong whatever America does in the world-quick to condemn any American inaction as isolationist irresponsibility and any action as unilateralist hegemony. Revel explains that America, despite its flaws and failures, must act because of Europe's deeper flaws and greater failures. The anti-American Europeans, unaffected by historical facts and driven by ideological animosity, “condemn themselves to impotence,” Revel says, “and thus, in effect, strengthen the country they claim to fear.”

Anti-Americanism has an additional paradox, as noted by another authority on the subject, scholar Paul Hollander, who survived one European ideology (Nazism), escaped another, (Communism), and emigrated to America: “Never in history has a society been so widely vilified while at the same time attracting millions from every corner of the world.”

THE IRONY OF THE AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY

In Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity (2004), Samuel P. Huntington, a prestigious University Professor at Harvard, explains that our exceptionalism arises from the early English settlers, who gave us what he describes as our Anglo-Protestant culture. Those cultural characteristics in turn gave us what has been called the American Creed of individual freedom and responsibility within our framework of constitutional liberty. Not the ancestral identity or religion, but the resulting culture and civic creed have nurtured the nation through waves of immigration and assimilated millions of people with diverse ancestries and religions into becoming Americans. A traditional scholar, Huntington sees the trendy doctrines of multiculturalism and diversity as threats to our national identity and civic creed, empowering racial and ethnic groups rather than individuals. They encourage new immigrants, especially the Spanish-speaking, to disdain our culture and creed and to resist assimilation as Americans, leading Huntington to fear a bifurcated America with two cultures and languages. Certain to offend the politically correct, Huntington can envision Hispanics fulfilling the American dream only if they dream in English.

Our nation has other characteristics, explains political analyst Michael Barone in Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation's Future (2004). Soft, coddling America produces incompetent 18-year-olds, while Hard, competitive America produces competent 30-year-olds. As the 18-year-olds make the transition from school to the marketplace or military, individual responsibility and accountability make the difference. Barone favors Hard America, but he values some Soft America. He warns: “We have the luxury of keeping parts of our society Soft only if we keep enough of it Hard.”

Other American characteristics are explained in The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (2004) by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, Oxford educated Britons who cover America for the British magazine the Economist. Drawing on their own observations and other scholarly studies, they explain the fusion of traditional conservatism and libertarianism into modern American conservatism. At its core, they find “a very moderate sort of liberty: the freedom for individuals as far as possible to pursue their own ends unconstrained by government interference.” They recognize an American reformation of traditional conservatism, in effect acknowledging that modern American conservatism reflects post-Enlightenment classical liberalism. In other words, although the American Left has misappropriated the word liberalism and misapplied it to its group-think and big-government ideas, it is the American Right that holds classical liberalism's ideals of individual liberty under limited government.

As the nation prepares to inaugurate George W. Bush for his second term as our 43rd president, Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House (2004) provides profiles and rankings of his predecessors. Edited by James Taranto and Leonard Leo, it completes a survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal and the Federalist Society of a variety of scholars. (The only North Carolina survey participant is UNC-Chapel Hill historian William Leuchtenburg.) Only three presidents are ranked as great: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eight presidents ranked as near great include Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. Beyond those and other rankings, an introduction explains the constitutional provisions for the presidency, brief essays discuss each president, and fuller essays focus on four issues of presidential leadership. Together, they provide a composite American history, written by notables including Northwestern University's Steven G. Calabresi, Princeton's Robert P. George, and Harvard's Harvey C. Mansfield. In a foreword, William J. Bennett warns of the whirlwind we could reap if we do not know our history, and he notes that Ronald Reagan expressed in his farewell address a fear of the “eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.”

GREAT PRESIDENTS

Through these readings, we can better understand the modern world, threats to it, and Americans' roles in the world. And we can better understand our nation itself, an important task, as British historian Paul Johnson reminded us in his History of the American People (1999): “No other national story holds such tremendous lessons, for the American people themselves and for the rest of mankind. It now spans four centuries and, as we enter the new millennium, we need to retell it, for if we can learn these lessons and build upon them, the whole of humanity will benefit in the new age which is now opening.”

GOOD YEAR FOR BOOKS AND BOOK EVENTS

A great way to prepare for the New Year is to look back at the previous annum's accomplishments. As many of my peers in these pages are ranking their top tens in various genres, I want to provide a quick review of events that-for one reason or another-made literary news in the area this past year. I also want to issue my standard disclaimer for this column: My reading list over the course of any year is eclectic and too often not focused solely on the latest publications (my recent books have included a Malamud, a Melville and a Morrison, only one of which was published even within my own lifetime), and so I feel hesitant to recommend a more traditional “top ten” books of 2004-even on a regional level, where my attention often does focus. That said, near the end of this list is at least one major recommendation of a recent book about which I have no hesitation. In the meantime, without further ado:

1. In January of last year, the Wake County Public Library system announced that county readers had chosen one of my own personal favorite novels-Lewis Nordan's Wolf Whistle-for the 2004 Wake Reads Together program, a community-wide initiative to put readers throughout the region on, quite literally, the same page. A series of programs took place at libraries, bookstores and other venues between the January announcement and April 1, when the author himself delivered a reading at Jones Chapel on the Meredith College campus. More than 1000 people attended program events, and the library estimates that more than 5,200 people read the novel during that three-month period. And stay tuned: The 2005 title will be announced on Jan. 2, and a kick-off event takes place on Tuesday, Jan. 11, at Kenan Recital Hall at Peace College. The five finalists are: T. Coraghessan Boyle's Tortilla Curtain; Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time; Silas House's Clay's Quilt, James McBride's The Color of Water-A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother; and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

2. Though Kaye Gibbons' Divining Women ultimately received mixed reviews-Booklist, for example, called it a “gorgeously moody and piquant fairy tale” while Publisher's Weekly noted its “erratic storytelling”-fans celebrated the long-awaited publication of the Raleigh author's seventh novel last April, and likewise celebrated the book's topic and themes, which explored the resonance between women's struggles just before World War I and their emotional lives today. As Gibbons explained it in an interview with Metro last year: “I desperately tried to convey the fact that, when it comes to the interior landscapes of our minds and hearts, time is meaningless. . When you strip the place in time away, you're left with the unchanging core emotional issue.” The novel, still in its hardcover run, is due for paperback publication in mid-2005.

3. Also in April, North Carolina State University hosted the biennial North Carolina Literary Festival, featuring Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, and best-selling novelist Dennis Lehane, who penned Mystic River, and is now a who's who of North Carolina writers. Metro, with a sponsorship from SAS, published the first ever Student Essay Contest during the NC Literary Festival. Entries were judged as submitted from public schools across the state. An estimated 5000 people took part in the weekend's festivities. Next stop for the festival: Duke University in Spring 2006.

4. Last year marked anniversaries for several NC literary institutions-all of which merit mention among 2004's top literary events. First up is the 50th anniversary of John F. Blair, Publisher, in Winston-Salem, a small publishing house whose dedication to regional titles has made it a model among small presses. Over the last half-century, Blair publications have won each of North Carolina's major literary awards: the Mayflower Cup (Ben Dixon MacNeill's The Hatterasman), the Sir Walter Raleigh Award (Charles F. Price's Freedom's Altar) and the Roanoke-Chowan Award (Guy Owens' The White Stallion and Other Poems). Other titles worth looking up include: Legends of the Outer Banks by Charles Harry Whedbee; Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail by Louise Shivers; My Folks Don't Want Me to Talk About Slavery, a collection of oral histories by former slaves; and Steven Sherrill's The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break.

5. Raleigh's Quail Ridge Books also celebrated an anniversary in 2004-20 years since it first opened for business as Books at Quail Corners on Falls of Neuse Road. While owner Nancy Olson has recounted a lonely book signing for Jill McCorkle in the business's early days (just the two of them, apparently), the store has come a long way since (as has McCorkle): Now QRB's biggest book signings find crowds lined up for hours, and Publishers Weekly named the store Bookseller of the Year just a few years back. The 20th anniversary celebration on the first Saturday and Sunday in October drew large and devoted crowds, including Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker with a surprise proclamation for “Quail Ridge Books & Music Day”-just one component of a weekend that Olson recently called “the pinnacle of her career.”

6. Then the last weekend in October celebrated another 20th: The NC Writers' Network's 20th annual Fall Conference, attended by more than 250 writers and aspiring writers and marked by several highlights. “Reynolds Price gave a fabulous interview-format keynote speech on Friday,” said NCWN executive director Cynthia Barnett, “and many said it was the best they had ever heard from him-warm, humorous insights and personal reminiscences, with the help of interviewer and friend Jeff Anderson.” Barnett also cited among the highlights an unusual contribution: a performance by prison women writers, courtesy of writing coach Jude Reitman-proof of the Network's continuing eagerness to help writers at all stages of their careers and in every corner of the state.

7. Over the past year, several area authors have lent their voices to various causes with fundraising readings at one level or another. While not all can be discussed here, mention of a couple of events can help demonstrate the effect writers can have with their words. An early March fundraiser at McIntyre's Books in Fearrington Village-featuring readings by Kaye Gibbons and Virginia Holman and presented in memory of Joshua Field Seay, son of poet James Seay and novelist Lee Smith-raised $2400 for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of North Carolina. And Wilmington-based author Ellyn Bache headlined November's WordFeast, a group reading by regional Jewish writers at Raleigh's Temple Beth Or, which raised $1300 for ROAR (Raleigh Organizing for Action and Results), a grassroots coalition seeking to bring together racially, economically and religiously diverse people to improve life in our area. Good writing, it seems, leads to good work in more ways than one.

8. While several high profile writers have visited the Triangle over the past year-ranging from Margaret Atwood in April to Sue Grafton and Walter Mosley over the summer to Tom Wolfe at the beginning of the holiday season-one author merits a special mention here: Ellen Gilchrist, the author of 23 novels, short story collections and collections of essays, who received the fifth annual Thomas Wolfe Prize at UNC-Chapel Hill in early October. Gilchrist met with creative writing students at UNC and then delivered a reading from her story collection In the Land of Dreamy Dreams to a packed (and enthusiastic) Carroll Hall. Previous recipients of the award have included Tom Wolfe, Larry Brown, Elizabeth Spencer and Pat Conroy-esteemed company, to say the least (as if Gilchrist weren't already in good company with her previous achievements and accolades).

9. The mention of Larry Brown introduces some sad news. A few months ago, I encouraged a recent acquaintance to check into Brown's short stories and novels. Two days before Thanksgiving, the acquaintance thanked me for that recommendation, telling me in awestruck tones how much he'd admired and enjoyed the books he'd picked up so far. In this context, I was particularly saddened to learn the following evening that Brown had just died of a heart attack at age 53-a shock for those who knew him and a loss for us all. It would be easy to call Brown a gifted writer, except for the fact that he worked so hard to earn those gifts; perhaps the term “relentless craftsman” would be better suited, but in either case, I can do no better here than to recommend you to read his books, beginning with the masterful short story collection Facing the Music, first published in 1988 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. His other titles include the story collection Big Bad Love; the novels Dirty Work, Joe, Father and Son, Fay and The Rabbit Factory; and two collections of essays, On Fire and Billy Ray's Farm.

10. As promised, I also want to include mention of at least one of my favorite books over the last year-one that has also been making “best of” lists elsewhere around the country. Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, an alternative history of the US in which Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR for the presidency in 1940, stands as one of his most daring books-both as personal and as political as any he's written. Despite an accelerated ending, the book is a triumph, managing to be edgily contemporary in its themes, without a single mention of today's social and political divisions.

Finally, as with last year, a bonus mention of a book from the past. I've recently been rereading Allan Gurganus' 1991 short story collection White People and want to recommend that other readers give the volume a look as well, especially the opening story, “Minor Heroism,” first published in the early 1970s. (While you are at it, also check out his recent New Yorker contribution, “My Heart Is A Snake Farm.”) Though Gurganus may be best known for his novels, particularly Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, his short stories are simply masterful-revealing luminous insights, unexpected architectural details and (as always) a generous humor about the human condition. Highly recommended.