I’ve been an unconditional admirer of Lewis Lapham ever since I discovered Harper’s Magazine many years ago. Lapham was the editor of Harper’s for 30 years, from 1976 to 2006. His current title is “editor emeritus,” which is not to say he’s retired. He still writes his regular Notebook feature for Harper’s and he’s embarked on a new history-journal project called Lapham’s Quarterly. The journal’s interest goes beyond its excellent content, for the three media it employs simultaneously: online, print and radio. Not to drag this introduction out, I just want to offer you some of Lapham’s comments on YouTube. There are a couple of hour-long interviews, along with some shorter features. All of them are worth spending your time. Lewis Lapham is a singular American. If there were 100 like him it would be a different country.
This first video, a 2006 interview with Harry Kreisler from “Conversations with History” includes a hilarious (“hilarious” as in “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…”) account of his job interview with the CIA:
This second clip, “Nickel and Dimed from the American Ruling Class,” is full of wonderful Lapham humor and irony, and even includes a musical number:
I’ll leave you with this quote from Lapham’s 2006 homage to Molly Ivins:
As we know from any reading of the morning papers, liberty is never at a loss for ambitious enemies, but the survival of the American democracy depends less on the magnificence of its Air Force or the wonder of its fleets than on the willingness of its citizens to stand on the ground of their own thought. Unless we try to tell one another the truth about what we know and think and see, we might as well amuse ourselves–at least for as long as somebody in uniform allows us to do so–with fairy tales.
Filed under: US media, United States, books, politics, sources | Tagged: Lewis Lapham, Harper's Magazine, Lapham's Quarterly
