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Some of the most recognized voices in American writing and academia
contribute to this provocative forum concerning the terrorist
crisis and its causes. Moderated by Lewis H. Lapham, this timely
debate features conversations with noted author and vocal critic of
U.S. foreign policy Gore Vidal; historian Barton Bernstein of
Stanford University; economist and historian Robert Higgs of the
Independent Institute; and Thomas Gale Moore of the Hoover
Institution. Voicing opinions contrary to those espoused by the
present administration and seldom heard in mainstream media, they
discuss the definition of terrorism, the impact of U.S. foreign
policy on the terrorist crisis, and the long-term significance of
the September 11 attacks. Also examined are the potential
curtailment of basic civil liberties, the effects of a global U.S.
military presence, alternatives that would lessen the terrorist
threat, and a lively question and answer session.
The United States has been engaged in what the great historian
Charles A. Beard called "perpetual war for perpetual peace." The
Federation of American Scientists has catalogued nearly 200
military incursions since 1945 in which the United States has been
the aggressor. In a series of penetrating and alarming essays,
whose centerpiece is a commentary on the events of September 11,
2001 (deemed unpublishable in this country until now) Gore Vidal
challenges the comforting consensus following both September 11th
and Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma
City: these were simply the acts of "evil-doers." "None of these
explanations made much sense, but our rulers for more than half a
century have made sure that we are never to be told the truth about
anything that our government has done to other people, not to
mention our own. That our ruling junta might have seriously
provoked McVeigh and Osama was never dealt with. We consumers don't
need to be told the why of anything. Certainly those of us who are
in the why-business have a difficult time in getting through the
corporate-sponsored American media, so I thought it useful to
describe here the various provocations on our side that drove both
bin Laden and McVeigh to such terrible acts." "The awesome physical
damage Osama and company did us is as nothing compared to the
knock-out blow to our vanishing liberties: the Anti-Terrorism Act
of 1991 combined with the recent request to Congress for additional
special powers to wiretap without judicial order; to deport lawful
permanent residents, visitors and undocumented immigrants without
due process." Could it be that the greatest victim of the September
11th terror attackswill be American liberty?"Once alienated, "
Vidal writes, "an 'unalienable right' is apt to be forever lost."
Gore Vidal is the author of twenty-two novels, five plays, many
screenplays, more than two hundred essays, and a memoir. The Times
Literary Supplement (U.K.) noted that Vidal's "United States
(Essays 1952-92) is one of the great American books of the
twentieth century." It won the 1993 National Book Award."Gore Vidal
is the master essayist of our age." Washington Post "Our greatest
living man of letters." -- Boston Globe"Vidal's imagination of
American politics is so powerful as to compel awe." Harold Bloom,
New York Review of Books
Gore Vidal was one of America's greatest and most controversial
writers. The author of twenty-three novels, five plays, three
memoirs, numerous screenplays and short stories, and well over two
hundred essays, he received the National Book Award in 1993.In
1953, Vidal had already begun writing the works that would launch
him to the top ranks of American authors and intellectuals. But in
the wake of criticism for the scandalous content of his third
novel, The City and the Pillar, Vidal turned to writing crime
fiction under pseudonyms: three books as "Edgar Box" and one as
"Cameron Kay." The Edgar Box novels were subsequently republished
under his real name. The Cameron Kay never was.Lost for more than
60 years and overflowing with political and sexual intrigue,
Thieves Fall Out provides a delicious glimpse into the mind of Gore
Vidal in his formative years. By turns mischievous and deadly
serious, Vidal tells the story of a man caught up in events bigger
than he is, a down-on-his-luck American hired to smuggle an ancient
relic out of Cairo at a time when revolution is brewing and heads
are about to roll.One part Casablanca and one part
torn-from-the-headlines tabloid reportage, this novel also offers a
startling glimpse of Egypt in turmoil - written over half a century
ago, but as current as the news streaming from the streets of Cairo
today.
Gore Vidal's reputation as America's finest essayist is an enduring
one. This collection, chosen by the author from 40 years of work,
contains about two-thirds of what he published in various magazines
and journals. He has divided the essays into three categories, or
states. State of the art covers literature, including novelists and
critics, bestsellers, pieces on Henry James, Oscar Wilde,
Suetonius, Nabakov and Montaigne (a previosly uncollected essay
from 1992). State of the union deals with politics and public life:
sex, drugs, money, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, The Holy
Family (his essay on the Kennedys), Nixon, and finally Monotheism
and its Discontents , a scathing critique of Christianity, Judaism
and Islam. In state of being, we are given personal responses to
people and events: recollections of his childhood, E. Nesbit,
Tarzan, Tennessee Williams and Anais Nin.
The seventh volume of what Vidal has entitled the "Narratives of
Empire". In "The Golden Age", which offers a fictionalized version
of American politics from 1940 to 2000, his main charge is that one
of the most revered of all 20th-century presidents, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, provoked, and then failed to warn his commanders about,
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His deception was brought
about by a poll which revealed that 60 per cent of Americans were
opposed to any foreign war. The author uses a series of episodes to
show how the US, through its leaders and not through events, became
the most influential country in the world, as he reveals
(imaginary) conversations in the White House, in newspaper offices
and around Washington DC.
This is the fascinating autobiography of a society heiress who
became the bohemian doyenne of the art world. Written in her own
words it is the frank and outspoken story of her life and loves:
her stormy relationships with such men as Max Ernst and Jackson
Pollock, and her discovery of new artists. Known as 'the mistress
of modern art', Peggy Guggenheim was a passionate collector and
major patron. She amassed one of the most important collections of
early twentieth-century European and American art embracing Cubism,
Surrealism and Expressionism. A must-read for anyone with an
interest in these major-league artists, this seminal period of art
history, and the ultimate self-invented woman. Includes a foreword
by Gore Vidal.
Here is the story of arguably America’s finest hour; of the time when the twentieth century dawned, Queen Victoria died, and America, basking deliciously in excess wealth, rather thought it might snap up an empire of its own. Yet while politicians muse over the potential of China or the Philippines – even Russia – empires are being built at home; railway empires; industrial empires; newspaper empires. Into this arena float the delectable Caroline Sanford, putative heiress and definite catch. Caroline is an oddity; she has been raised in France where they teach rich girls to talk and think. American society women, required only to think of themselves as the most interesting beings on earth, are rather alarmed. American men are amused – until Caroline shirks from marriage, sues her brother, buys a newspaper, and becomes that even greater oddity – a powerful woman. Mingling with the movers and shakers of the day – with President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Randolf Hearst, Henry James, the Astors, Vanderbilts and Whitneys – Caroline Sanford echoes the glorious passage of the United States as it sweeps into a new century, reaching boldly for the world.
In 1804, Colonel Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States, shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Three years later, on the order of President Thomas Jefferson, he was tried for treason: for plotting to dismember the United States. Gore Vidal, romping iconoclastically through American history, debunks, in this historical novel of Burr’s life, the common and casually held notion of the man as a scoundrel and an adventurer. Instead he appears as one of the ‘host of choice spirits’ forced to live among coarse, materialistic, hypocritical people ? among them Jefferson and Hamilton. Here, the latter appears as a power-hungry ‘parvenu’ from the West Indies and the former as a semi-literate slave-owning tyrant. American politics, suggests Vidal, had a penchant for the vulgar. Even then. Veering backwards to the revolution and the early days of the republic, stopping at dinner-parties on the way, and reaching forward to the future, BURR is a novel about treason, both the particular and in general. For what, asks Vidal, really belongs to whom? What properly belongs to the Constitution, to the nation, to the family ?even, intriguingly, to novelists and historians?
Jim Willard, former high-school athlete and clean-cut
boy-next-door-, is haunted by the memory of a romanctic adolescent
encounter with his friend Bob Ford. As Jim pursues his first love,
in awe of the very same masculinity he possesses himself, his
progresss through the secret gay world of 1940's America unveils
surreptitious Hollywood affairs, the hidden life of the military in
the Second World War and the underworld bar culture of New York
City. With the publication of his daring thrid novel The City and
the Pillar in 1948, Gore Vidal shocked the American public, which
has just begun to hail him as their newest and brightest young
writer. It remains not only an authentic and profoundly importatnt
social document but also a serious exploration of the nature of
idealistic love.
Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to the post-World War II years. With their broad canvas and large cast of fictional and historical characters, the novels in this series present a panorama of the American political and imperial experience as interpreted by one of its most worldly, knowing, and ironic observers.
Burr is a portrait of perhaps the most complex and misunderstood of the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. Burr retains much of his political influence if not the respect of all. And he is determined to tell his own story. As his amanuensis, he chooses Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, a young New York City journalist, and together they explore both Burr's past and the continuing political intrigues of the still young United States.
A sweeping novel of politics, war, philosophy, and adventure–in a restored edition, featuring never-before-published material from Gore Vidal’s original manuscript–Creation offers a captivating grand tour of the ancient world. Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster and lifelong friend of Xerxes, spent most of his life as Persian ambassador for the great king Darius. He traveled to India, where he discussed nirvana with Buddha, and to the warring states of Cathay, where he learned of Tao from Master Li and fished on the riverbank with Confucius. Now blind and aged in Athens–the Athens of Pericles, Sophocles, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Socrates–Cyrus recounts his days as he strives to resolve the fundamental questions that have guided his life’s journeys: how the universe was created, and why evil was created with good. In revisiting the fifth century b.c.–one of the most spectacular periods in history–Gore Vidal illuminates the ideas that have shaped civilizations for millennia.
The United States has been engaged in what the great historian
Charles A. Beard called "perpetual war for perpetual peace." The
Federation of American Scientists has cataloged nearly 200 military
incursions since 1945 in which the United States has been the
aggressor. In a series of penetrating and alarming essays, whose
centerpiece is a commentary on the events of September 11, 2001
(deemed too controversial to publish in this country until now)
Gore Vidal challenges the comforting consensus following September
11th and goes back and draws connections to Timothy McVeigh's
bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. He asks were
these simply the acts of "evil-doers?" "Gore Vidal is the master
essayist of our age." -- Washington Post "Our greatest living man
of letters."--Boston Globe "Vidal's imagination of American
politics is so powerful as to compel awe."--Harold Bloom, The New
York Review of Books
The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal’s finest historical novels.
Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the Roman Empire. A military genius on the level of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, a graceful and persuasive essayist, and a philosopher devoted to worshipping the gods of Hellenism, he became embroiled in a fierce intellectual war with Christianity that provoked his murder at the age of thirty-two, only four years into his brilliantly humane and compassionate reign. A marvelously imaginative and insightful novel of classical antiquity, Julian captures the religious and political ferment of a desperate age and restores with blazing wit and vigor the legacy of an impassioned ruler.
Imagined by one of the world's foremost JFK scholars, this
fictionalised conversation presents the essential biography of
America's most glamorous and mythologised president. For many, the
presidency of John F. Kennedy was a magic interlude in American
history. His admirers saw him as a leader of intelligence and
imagination, who wielded power with grace, courage and verve -
although detractors have questioned the depth of his convictions
and drawn attention to his serial philandering. Kennedy's rise also
marked the beginning of modern "celebrity" politics - a politician
with film star charisma who proved ideally suited to the new age of
television. Meet the man himself and he'll tell you how it felt to
have his finger on the red button when the world teetered on the
brink of nuclear war. The book is divided into two parts: a
biographical essay that provides a concise overview of JFK's life,
achievements, scandals and controversies; and a Q&A dialogue
based on rigorous research and incorporating JFK's actual spoken or
written words whenever possible, along with rigorously researched
biographical interpretations of his various views and positions.
Here you will find all the key moments in JFK's life and career:
his early days at Harvard and the US Navy; his family background
and the importance of his Catholic faith; running for office
against Richard Nixon; his clashes with communist power in Berlin
and Cuba; the Civil Rights movement; Vietnam; and the president's
often scandalous personal life that was carefully concealed from an
adoring public. Kennedy's assassination on 22 November 1963 marked
the beginning of a tumultuous and bitterly divided decade, and
birthed countless conspiracy theories that thrive to this day.
These legacies of polarisation and suspicion of established
authority have assumed particular salience in the 21st century.
Gore Vidal's fictional recreation of the Roman Empire teetering on
the crux of Christianity and ruled by an emperor who was an
inveterate dabbler in arcane hocus-pocus, a prig, a bigot, and a
dazzling and brilliant leader.
* I exist to say, 'No, that isn't the way it is, ' or 'What you
believe to be true is not true for the following reasons.' I am a
master of the obvious. I mean, if there's a hole in the road, I
will, viciously, outrageously, say there's a hole in the road and
if you don't fill it in you'll break the axle of your car. One is
not loved for being helpful.
Gore Vidal, one of America's foremost essayists, screenwriters, and
novelists, died July 31, 2012. He was, in addition, a terrific
conversationalist. Dick Cavett once described him as the best
talker since Oscar Wilde. And Vidal was never more eloquent, or
caustic, than when let loose on his favorite topic, the history and
politics of the United States.
This book is made up from four interviews conducted with his
long-time interlocutor, the writer and radio host Jon Wiener, in
which Vidal grapples with matters evidently close to his heart: the
history of the American Empire, the rise of the National Security
State, and his own life in politics, both as a commentator and
candidate.
The interviews cover a twenty-year span, from 1988 to 2008, when
Vidal was at the height of his powers. His extraordinary facility
for developing an argument, tracing connections between past and
present, and drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of America's
place in the world, are all on full display. And, of course, it
being Gore Vidal, an ample sprinkling of gloriously acerbic
one-liners is also provided.
This is a memoir of the first 40 years of Gore Vidal's life,
ranging back and forth across a rich history. He spent his
childhood in Washington DC, in the household of his grandfather,
the blind senator from Oklahoma, T.P. Gore, and in the various
domestic situations of his complicated and exasperating mother,
Nina. Then come schooldays at St Albans and Exeter; the army; life
as a literary wunderkind in New York, London, Rome and Paris in the
'40s and '50s; sex in an age of promiscuity; and a campaign for
Congress in 1960. His cast includes Tennessee Williams, the
Kennedys, Eleanor Roosevelt, Truman Capote, Paul Newman and Joanne
Woodward, Christopher Isherwood, Jack Kerouac, Jane and Paul
Bowles, Santayana, Anais Nin, Norman Mailer, Leonard Bernstein and
the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, among others.
In "Death in the Fifth Position," dashing P.R. man Peter Sargent is
hired by a ballet company on the eve of a major upcoming
performance. Handling the press seems to be no problem, but when a
rising star in the company is killed during the
performance--dropped from thirty feet above the stage, crashing to
her death in a perfect fifth position--Sargent has a real case on
his hands. As he ingratiates himself with the players behind the
scenes (especially one lovely young ballerina), he finds that this
seemingly graceful ballet company is performing their most dramatic
acts behind the curtain. There are sharp rivalries, sordid affairs,
and shady characters. Sargent, though, has no trouble staying on
point and proving that the ballerina killer is no match for his
keen eye and raffish charm.
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