Tossing NYRs

"Jackson Lears... in No Place of Grace examined what he called antimodern traits during the Gilded Age: the tendency in such developments as the Arts and Crafts movement and Henry Adams embrace of medieval France to adopt cultural values from an earlier and seemingly more authentic time and place. In his new book, what he calls "The Age of Roosevelt" with all its collective fantasies of regeneration and national greatness... Lears identifies two strains of American aspiration during the period between the Civil War and WW1. The first is a widespread yearning for regeneration and rebirth. As daily life became more subject to the systematic demands of the modern corporation, the quest for revitalization became a search for release from the predictable rhythms of everyday" Regimentation in the workplace and relative comfort at home gave rise among the middle and upper classes to fears of over-civilization and a sense that they had somehow lost contact with the palpitating actuality of real life. The desire for revitalization, Lears believes was rooted in Protestant patterns of conversion and resonated with the American mythology of starting over and reinventing the self.

Articles on:
Louis-Ferdinand Celine's irrefutable antisemitism.
On the Booths:
Junius the mad father: There are endless examples of Junius’s erratic behavior. Once, playing in Boston, he burst into tears and “turning to the audience…screamed, ‘take me to the Lunatic Hospital!’ and ran sobbing toward the exit.” (“The stage manager stepped forward to announce, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Booth cannot appear this evening. His reason has left him.’”) Even more serious, one morning in a hotel lobby he announced, “I must cut somebody’s throat today, and whom shall I take?” then whipped out a dagger and attempted to stab a prominent member of the company.

As Junius deteriorated, the theater world grew wary of him—of “Crazy Booth, the mad tragedian”—but audiences still responded to his thrilling performances.

 Robert Wright's The Evolution of God : The evolution of monotheism was so gradual that traces of polytheism remain in the Hebrew Bible (There is none like you among the gods, O Lord). Wright also stresses that the Christian doctrine of universal brotherly love likely did not derive from Jesus but appeared later probably with the apostle Paul.