Description:
Notes on Democracy exposes some of the underlying tensions that must be understood by anyone committed to protecting democracy. Includes a noteworthy review by Walter Lippmann, an afterword by Ulrich Baer, and a biographical timeline.
Brief description: Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) was an American journalist, critic, and satirist who shaped modern American fiction and public life. His broad-ranging articles were characterized by unexpected, deeply thoughtful, and provocative analysis and assertions.
Review Quotes:
"This Holy Terror [H. L. Mencken] from Baltimore is splendidly and exultantly and contagiously alive. He calls you a swine, and an imbecile, and he increases your will to live."
-Walter Lippmann
"Mencken's vigor is...like an electric current. In all he writes there is a crackle of blue sparks...that give you a sense of enormous hidden power. Who could quarrel with such generosity, such vibrating sympathy, and
with a mind so intensely alive."
-Joseph Conrad