The New Criterion

Quite simply, the best cultural review in the world
- John O’Sullivan

Features

April 2002

The pillars of the temple of liberty

by Diana Schaub

The eighth in a series titled “The survival of culture.”

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
—Abraham Lincoln, Address before the Springfield Young Men’s Lyceum, 1838

Are we to think that September 11 proved Lincoln wrong? Certainly, there are many Americans who now feel vulnerable. In losing their sense of security, they may also have lost their sense of American exceptionalism. While it might have been true that America was once geographically blessed, our moated fortress is no longer unbreachable. ...

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

Diana Schaub
more from this author

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 20 April 2002, on page 4

Copyright © 2008 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/liberty-schaub-1984
rate this article for your user profile

E-mail to friend

Subscriber login

The New Criterion

Already a print subscriber? click for online access

login

Remember:

You might also enjoy

The Sixties at 40

by Peter Collier

On 1968, four decades later.

A literary education

by Joseph Epstein

On being well-versed in literature.

William Wilberforce: the great emancipator

by Keith Windschuttle

On William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner by William Hague.

Most popular

view more >

download
first delivery

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

‘Free speech in
an age of Jihad’

Events

October 22 2008

GALA EVENT: The New Criterion Benefit Art Auction


January 25 2009

TRAVEL EVENT: The New Criterion Cruise


Webcasts

The Milt Rosenberg Show: Free Speech in an age of Jihad
Roger Kimball, David Yezzi, and James Panero discuss the New Criterion special pamphlet "Free Speech in an Age of Jihad." From the Milt Rosenberg Show, WGN. Recorded live in the Chicago studios 8/14/2008.


Roger Kimball on liberalism's response to Islam
From an evening with the Illinois chapter of the Friends of The New Criterion. Recorded on 8/16/2008.


Encounter Books at 10, an interview with Roger Simon