The New Criterion
America’s leading review of the arts and intellectual life
- Harry Mount, the London Telegraph
FeaturesDecember 1996 Knocking about the ruins by John Gross The fourth in a series on “The future of the European past,” The only amusing thing I ever heard Hannah Arendt say—admittedly I only met her once or twice—was at a seminar in Princeton. The speaker was Dwight Macdonald; his subject was the inanity (or worse) of popular culture, and as he warmed to his theme, the counter-example he increasingly invoked was that of Europe. On the one hand Masscult and Midcult; on the other hand Athens, Florence, Paris, Weimar … He drifted on in this vein for about five minutes, until Arendt, who was sitting in the front row, permitted herself a very audible whisper: “Ach, Dwight, I could tell you a thing or two about that old Europe of yours.” No one in his right mind would want to defend the European past en bloc. In the twentieth century, Europe’s gifts to the world have included Nazism and Communism, and even before that, Europeans had quite as much to be ashamed of in their history as Asians, Africans, or any ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 15 December 1996, on page 4 Copyright © 2009 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/knockingaboutruins-gross-3419
rate this article for your user profile
E-mail to friend
|
by John Gross On Great Victorian Lives: An Era in Obituaries, edited by Ian Brunskill. Russia before the mirror: reflections on 1989 On the realities of cultural transformation in Russia.  The New Criterion is now optimized for Mobile Devices 
New from The New Criterion: "Free speech in
EventsNovember 09 2009 YOUNG FRIENDS: Tour of an important contemporary art collection November 24 2009 OPEN EVENT: Laura Jacobs reading December 02 2009 Friends Event: The Swallow Anthology Reading Webcasts
New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 4
New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 3
New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 2 Weblog 
|
add a comment
you must have an account to post a comment. {register now}