Sign in  |  Register

The New Criterion

America’s leading review of the arts and intellectual life
- Harry Mount, the London Telegraph
Subscribe Now and get unlimited access

Notes & Comments

December 2007

Lapham's latest folly

On the inaugural issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

The notebooks of the English aesthete Geoffrey Madan (1895–1947) are a trove of amusing aperçus, anecdotes, and apothegms. Among the many memorable gems Madan collected was the description of one now-forgotten character as “an intellectual without an intellect.” We thought of that observation while contemplating the inaugural issue of Lapham’s Quarterly, which rolled off the press last month. It’s been a few years since we’ve had occasion to notice Lewis H. Lapham in this space. In October 2004, we reported on “Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill.” This 7,500-word philippic appeared in the September 2004 issue of Harper’s, the magazine Mr. Lapham edited, with a brief hiatus in the early 1980s, from 1976 to 2006. What recommended “Tentacles of Rage” to the public’s attention was not the heat of its invective—shrill and irresponsible though tha ...

This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchase

Subscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions)

Subscribe to TNC (Online only)

Purchase article credit and clip this article

If you already have an account login first

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 26 December 2007, on page 1

Copyright © 2009 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Lapham-s-latest-folly-3698
rate this article for your user profile

E-mail to friend


The New Criterion

You might also enjoy

Yale & the veil

On Islamist pressure in New Haven.

Most popular

view more >

download
first delivery

The New Criterion is now optimized for Mobile Devices

New from The New Criterion:
40 page special issue
on our conference

"Free speech in
an age of Jihad"

Events

November 05 2009

Open Event: Talk by James Panero


November 09 2009

YOUNG FRIENDS: Tour of an important contemporary art collection


November 24 2009

OPEN EVENT: Laura Jacobs reading

Webcasts

New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 4
"The Criminalization of Making Money" by Lionel Shriver, Recorded 9/25/09


New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 3
"The State and the Threat to Democracy" by Jeremy Black and "The Paradox of the Intellectual and the Future of Capitalism" by Tim Congdon, Recorded on 9/25/2009


New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 2
"Nice 'N' Easy: The Age of Micro Tyranny" by Mark Steyn, Recorded on 9/25/2009

Weblog