THE WAIST-HIGH CULTURE

by Thomas Griffith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 26, 1958

Thomas Griffith, Foreign Affairs Editor of Time and a veteran journalist, takes a hard and devastating look at the American scene, and with the instincts of an ace reporter, unflinchingly records what he aces. Combining his own story with the history of America in the last forty-two years, Griffith takes the familiar pokes at American materialism, cultural mediocrity, and spiritual' confusion. But his critique is a departure from the agonizings of the self exiled intellectuals, nor does he participate in the fashionable sycophancy of many Americans for Europe. Thomas Griffith talks in plain language and his is the language an American whose roots are deep in the Western United States, who by birth and tradition is a child of the lower middle classes. And beneath the knowledgeable discussions of the American political scene, our foreign policy, events and men who have and do shape the American face, lies a tentative but ardent dream -- the dream of an America rich in the different elements it contains, governed by justice, respected for merit rather than feared, a country of diversity where ""duty is followed but in no dull way"", a place of tranquility not dullness, a land in which ""weaknesses are not denied but excellences are exalted"". A virile, penetrating, and informative manifestation of concern and responsibility.

Pub Date: Feb. 26, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION