• Home
  • About us
  • Contact Us
  • Date/Time
  • Login
  • Subscribe

logo

  • Home
  • Politics
  • Economics & Finance
  • World
  • Arts & Books
  • Life
  • Science
  • Philosophy
  • Subscribe
  • Events
Home
  • Home
  • Blogs
  • Politics
  • Economics & Finance
  • World
  • Arts & Books
  • Life
  • Science
  • Philosophy
  • Subscribe
  • Events
  • Home
  • Magazine

The American mind

The historian Garry Wills has written better than anybody else about modern America

by Sam Tanenhaus / March 11, 2013 / Leave a comment
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Email

Published in March 2013 issue of Prospect Magazine

Wills is an outsider: a practising Catholic, a proud midwesterner, a cheerful iconoclast who has infuriated friends on both the left and right ©  Gasper Tringale


Sooner or later, anyone who writes about America must reckon with Garry Wills. Not that it’s easy to do. The books are demanding enough—not the prose, which is graceful and elegant—but the arguments, which are unfailingly original, often provocative, occasionally subversive and, now and again, utterly perverse, yet stamped every time with the finality of the last word.

In his 50 or so books, a handful of them masterpieces, Wills has ranged further than any other American writer of his time, covering much of the western tradition, ancient and contemporary, sacred and profane. His subjects include Jesus, Paul and Augustine, American presidents old and new (Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, Reagan, the second Bush), Shakespeare and Verdi, the outrages of American militarism, the glories and delinquencies of his beloved-despised Catholicism and—why not?—John Wayne (Wills is a devotee of John Ford’s Westerns.) For diversion, Wills extrudes densely learned articles in the New York Review of Books, the august journal that since the 1970s has been the main stage of his brutal dismantlings of inferior—that is to say, other—minds. To be reviewed by Wills, I can attest, is to feel like a vagrant caught urinating in the master’s hedges: after the initial panic, one experiences a strange, penitential relief. God, or at least one of His retainers, really is watching.

On a dour Sunday morning in December, I visited Wills, who is nearing 79 but looks 20 years younger, at his large three-storey house in Evanston, a prosperous suburb to the north of C…

YOU’VE HIT THE LIMIT

You have now reached your limit of 3 free articles in the last 30 days.
But don’t worry! You can get another 7 articles absolutely free, simply by entering your email address in the box below.

When you register we’ll also send you a free e-book—Writing with punch—which includes some of the finest writing from our archive of 22 years. And we’ll also send you a weekly newsletter with the best new ideas in politics and philosophy of culture, which you can of course unsubscribe from at any time







Prospect may process your personal information for our legitimate business purposes, to provide you with our newsletter, subscription offers and other relevant information.

Click to learn more about these interests and how we use your data. You will be able to object to this processing on the next page and in all our communications.

17898069405c6e7a9748c463.96712815

Go to comments

Related articles

America's compromised Supreme Court
Dahlia Lithwick / October 12, 2018
With Kavanaugh on the bench, the court will struggle to retain its authority
Trump's America is heading for an economic slowdown
Vicky Pryce / January 9, 2019
Seen through one lens, the US was the economic success story of 2018. But a slowdown...
Share with friends
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Email

Comments

  1. nietky
    March 12, 2013 at 05:54
    The cartoon mentioned at the end is here: http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Month=August&Date=19
  2. Paul
    March 12, 2013 at 06:35
    Wills is an intellectual who helped bring my inchoate beliefs into form. It was an aha! moment when I found his work. Love him. Thanks.
  3. Luke Lea
    March 12, 2013 at 14:51
    Time for me to read Nixon Agonistes I guess. I'd like to know what Will's thoughts are about the future of America, the contest between republic and empire. Has he already written about it.
  4. kent kaufman
    March 12, 2013 at 15:48
    The book on Venice was an overreach. Virtually unreadable. Everything is choice.
  5. BLARG
    March 12, 2013 at 16:19
    I don't know his earlier work, but nothing he's written in the last ten years or so has been particularly interesting or original. Of course, you could say the same for Tanenhaus.
  6. Bill Marvel
    March 12, 2013 at 20:36
    When my conscience needs to be challenged, I return again and again to Wills.
  7. John Hilton
    March 16, 2013 at 02:30
    Thanks for a good read about an American original. To pick a geographical nit, while the northernmost point of Lake Michigan is indeed about 500 km north of Wills' home, Canada lies 150 km or so farther north--via Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Lake Superior.
  8. Phil Balla
    March 17, 2013 at 03:08
    Love Sam Tannenhaus' writing here -- but have one quibble. At one point he quotes the National Catholic Reporter as calling Wills, "perhaps the most distinguished Catholic intellectual in America over the last 50 years.” The arithmetic is off just a bit. given that Thomas Merton's death, in December of 1968, is still only 45 years past.
  9. Mike
    March 18, 2013 at 19:31
    So much nonsense in this article. The University of Chicago doesn't hire dissidents or "singular" minds? How many "mad 'Bible Belt' campaigns" are attempting to ban the teaching of evolution in schools? Most just ask that the arguments of intelligent design be presented alongside evolution in the classroom. And how does Obama's withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by 2014 "vindicate" Wills' prediction that if he sends more troops, he'll "never get out"? That was the plan all along!
  10. Bob Lipton
    March 21, 2013 at 21:07
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but Mark Twain, although born in Missouri, was not raised on the banks of the river that shares the state's name. Hannibal is on the Mississippi. And while someone who tinkles on the piano may make a mess, someone who tinkers on it is making small repairs.
  11. buy real facebook fans
    September 29, 2013 at 00:10
    I have to thank you for the efforts you have put in penning this blog. I'm hoping to check out the same high-grade content by you in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my very own site now ;)
  12. new mustang 2015
    December 14, 2013 at 11:32
    Everyone loves what you guys tend to be up too. Such clever work and exposure! Keep up the excellent works guys I've incorporated you guys to blogroll.

Prospect's free newsletter

The big ideas that are shaping our world—straight to your inbox. PLUS a free e-book and 7 articles of your choosing on the Prospect website.

Prospect may process your personal information for our legitimate business purposes, to provide you with our newsletter, subscription offers and other relevant information. Click here to learn more about these purposes and how we use your data. You will be able to opt-out of further contact on the next page and in all our communications.

This Month's Magazine

Perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus.

Prospect is the leading magazine of ideas. Each month it is packed with the finest writing on politics, culture, economics and ideas. Subscribe today and join the debate.

Subscribe

Most Popular

  • Read
  • Commented

This proposal for breaking the Brexit deadlock deserves serious consideration

Did the SDP really split the left in 1983?

The Duel: Has modern architecture ruined Britain?

The invigorating strangeness of Friedrich Nietzsche

What the row over Winston Churchill's legacy is really about

The Conservative Party has a problem—it’s no longer conservative

5 Comments

The impact of Brexit on services has not received nearly enough attention

2 Comments

Even if Britain stays in Europe, we need a new constitutional settlement

2 Comments

If May's deal is in flames, Labour should not seek to put out the fire

2 Comments

The naïve optimism of Liam Fox

2 Comments

About this author

Sam Tanenhaus
Sam Tanenhaus is Prospect's US Writer-at-Large
More by this author

More by Sam Tanenhaus

The mystifying ascent of Mike Pompeo
June 18, 2018
Why Fire and Fury is such a hit
January 22, 2018
If Trump doesn't already fear Robert Mueller, he should
December 14, 2017

Next Prospect events

  • Details

    Prospect Book Club—Diarmaid MacCulloch

    London, 2019-05-20

  • Details

    Prospect Book Club—Sue Prideaux

    2019-04-15

  • Details

    Prospect Book Club—Andrew Roberts

    2019-03-14

See more events

Sponsored features

  • The future of transport: taking Britain into the fast lane

  • Reforming the pension system to work for the many

  • Putting savers in the driving seat: getting the pensions dashboard right

  • To fix the housing crisis we need fresh thinking

  • Tata Steel UK: Driving innovation for the future of mobility

PrimeTime

The magazine is owned and supported by the Resolution Group, as part of its not-for-profit, public interest activities.

Follow us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • RSS

Editorial

Editor: Tom Clark
Deputy Editor: Steve Bloomfield
Managing Editor (Arts & Books): Sameer Rahim
Head of Digital: Stephanie Boland
Deputy Digital Editor (Political Correspondent): Alex Dean
Creative Director: Mike Turner
Production Editor & Designer: Chris Tilbury
US Writer-at-Large: Sam Tanenhaus

Commercial

Commercial Director: Alex Stevenson
Head of Marketing: Paul Mortimer
Marketing and Circulations Executive: James Hawkins
Programme Coordinator: Oliver James Ward
Head of Advertising Sales: Adam Kinlan 020 3372 2934
Senior Account Manager: Dominic Slonecki 0203 372 2972

  • Home
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Acceptable Use Policy
© Prospect Publishing Limited
×
Login
Login with your subscriber account:
You need a valid subscription to login.
I am
Remember Me


Forgotten password?

Or enter with social networking:
Login to post comments using social media accounts.
  • With Twitter
  • Connect
  • With Google +
×
Register Now

Register today and access any 7 articles on the Prospect’s website for FREE in the next 30 days..
PLUS find out about the big ideas that will shape our world—with Prospect’s FREE newsletter sent to your inbox. We'll even send you our e-book—Writing with punch—with some of the finest writing from the Prospect archive, at no extra cost!

Not Now, Thanks

Prospect may process your personal information for our legitimate business purposes, to provide you with our newsletter, subscription offers and other relevant information.

Click to learn more about these interests and how we use your data. You will be able to object to this processing on the next page and in all our communications.

×
You’ve got full access!

It looks like you are a Prospect subscriber.

Prospect subscribers have full access to all the great content on our website, including our entire archive.

If you do not know your login details, simply close this pop-up and click 'Login' on the black bar at the top of the screen, then click 'Forgotten password?', enter your email address and press 'Submit'. Your password will then be emailed to you.

Thank you for your support of Prospect and we hope that you enjoy everything the site has to offer.

This site uses cookies to improve the user experience. By using this site, you agree that we can set and use these cookies. For more details on the cookies we use and how to manage them, see our Privacy and Cookie Policy.