"Here is the first major anthology of essays from America's most provocative political and cultural magazine. Published to coincide with The New Republic's eightieth anniversary, this collection traces the evolution of twentieth-century liberal thought and the role that the magazine has played in shaping it." "When Herbert Croly founded The New Republic in 1914, his intent was "less to inform or entertain . . . than to start little insurrections" in the minds of his readers. Today the magazine is required reading in Washington's corridors of power and around the country. As Dorothy Wickenden points out in her introduction, The New Republic, conceived to perpetuate the free exchange of ideas, has thrived in large part because it continues to unsettle and surprise readers and to spurn conventional wisdom." "The book begins with the outbreak of World War I and ends with the collapse of totalitarianism. Included are essays from dozens of the century's preeminent intellectuals, critics, public figures, and journalists: John Maynard Keynes on Soviet Russia, Margaret Sanger on birth control, John Dos Passos on FDR, Alfred Kazin on fascism, Walter Lippmann on the end of the postwar world, John Osborne on Richard Nixon, Stanley Kauffmann on Steven Spielberg, Henry Fairlie on the Democratic Party, Michael Kinsley on political gaffes, Hendrik Hertzberg on Ronald Reagan, the editors on Bill Clinton. It also includes the funny and eloquent voices of less well known Americans: a housewife deploring her fate in 1917, an anonymous government clerk describing her prematurely aged colleagues, the confessions of an inner-city schoolteacher." "The anthology traces the key political and social battles of the century. The first section centers on international affairs, the second on domestic issues, the third on the conundrum of race. In the final section, called "Fights," New Republic contributors argue about the best means of pursuing liberal ends. Throughout, the book conveys the fractiousness and the resilience of American liberalism. It also vividly captures the iconoclastic character of The New Republic and its remarkable contribution to freewheeling intellectual debate in this country."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved