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Prejudices: A Selection (Buncombe Collection)

H.L. Mencken

4.19 · Rating details · 115 ratings · 18 reviews

With a style that combined biting sarcasm with the "language of the free lunch counter," Henry Louis Mencken shook politics and politicians for nearly half a century. Now, fifty years after Mencken’s death, the Johns Hopkins University Press announces The Buncombe Collection, newly packaged editions of nine Mencken classics: Happy Days, Heathen Days, Newspaper Days, Prejud ...more

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Paperback, 288 pages

Published August 28th 2006 by Johns Hopkins University Press (first published 1927)

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Apr 12, 2012 Matt rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: america-fuck-yeah, anthologies, historyonics-american, lit-crit, politik, social-crit

....And, actually, I'm going to say that it verges on two stars.

I've heard a lot about HL Mencken, most of it approving and well-nigh worshipful, and I saw this copy laid out on a shelf by random chance the other day and figured now was a good time to delve into it. Some professor must have chucked it and left it to be given away or pulped and I was happy to have found it.

I just finished it on the bus today and I gotta say it's perfect bus/commute/passing the time reading. Punchy, funny, sparkli ...more

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Mar 28, 2018 Barbara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I don't share all of H. L. Mencken's prejudices - how could I, over a century later and half a world away? But I loved his crisp way of executing his victims, relished his irony and enjoyed being taken by surprise and obliged to laugh out loud. ...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Jen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I'll say this--there is no point, either in the title or the content, that Mencken is at all shy or misleading about what this is.
This is, quite literally, a selection of prejudices. I had no idea who Mencken was when I picked this up off of a Free Shelf in college, so I can't quite chime in on his impact in some of these other reviews. I imagine, though, that he would have loved to have been in this age of opinionated blogging--he would have had a ball with the entire Internet to hear his ideas I'll say this--there is no point, either in the title or the content, that Mencken is at all shy or misleading about what this is.
This is, quite literally, a selection of prejudices. I had no idea who Mencken was when I picked this up off of a Free Shelf in college, so I can't quite chime in on his impact in some of these other reviews. I imagine, though, that he would have loved to have been in this age of opinionated blogging--he would have had a ball with the entire Internet to hear his ideas. He's quite delighted to simply tear apart things he finds ridiculous: "The truth is that criticism, if it were thus confined to the proposing of alternative schemes, would quickly cease to have any force or utility at all, for in the overwhelming majority of instances no alternative scheme of any intelligibility is imaginable, and the whole object of the critical process is to demonstrate it." (84)
This collection of essays is Mencken's weighing in on all manner of things in the way that only a 1920s, highly-educated white dude in America could. He's pretentious, racist, profoundly and self-righteously atheist, and utterly lost in despair that he was born American rather than English. The thing I appreciated most about this was the insight into the 20s, that rare moment of hindsight about the awfulness of The War To End All Wars before the realization that the 30s and 40s are going to suck like crazy. I don't know all that much about this time period, so it was cool to see from the viewpoint of a guy living through it. It manifests in some hilarious ways, like his enduring hatred of Methodists (who were very big in the Prohibition movement; fun fact, Welch's Grape Juice was invented partly because Welch was a Methodist trying to figure out how to make communion wine non-alcoholic) because they're taking away his lovely liquor. He also really dislikes chiropractors. And Calvin Coolidge. He does, however, absolutely love Baltimore, which was an interesting thing to come across with the recent race rioting there.
Some of this is terribly dated and some of it just clunky and silly because, again, overly-educated white dude. But it's an interesting peek into the era and what was important then. And some of the things he says are very much still things to which we should pay attention. A mixed bag; glad I picked it up, but I'm not going to hang on to it.

Some notable quotes:

"In view of the popular or general character of most of the taboos which put a brake upon personal liberty in thought and action--that is to say, in view of their enforcement by people in the mass, and not by definite specialists in conduct--it is quite natural to find that they are of extra force in democratic societies, for it is the distinguishing mark of democratic societies that they exalt the powers of the majority almost infinitely, and tend to deny the minority any rights whatever." (p. 25)

"[T]he United States is essentially a commonwealth of third-rate men--that distinction is easy here because the general level of culture, of information, of taste and judgment, of ordinary competence is so low...Third-rate men, of course, exist in all countries, but it is only here that they are in full control of the state, and with it of all the national standards. The land was peopled, not by the hardy adventurers of legend, but simply by incompetents who could not get on at home...No American colonist, even in the worst days of the Indian wars, ever had to face such hardships as ground down the peasants of Central Europe during the Hundred Years War, nor even such hardships as oppressed the English lower classes during the century before the Reform Bill of 1832." (98)

"What makes New York so dreadful, I believe, is mainly the fact that the vast majority of its people have been forced to rid themselves of one of the oldest and most powerful of human instincts--the instinct to make a permanent home...The very richest man, in New York, is never quite sure that the house he lives in now will be his next year--that he will be able to resist the constant pressure of business expansion and rising land values." (207) ...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Ike Sharpless rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, polemicists-curmudgeons

Four stars not because I agree with Mencken's politics - generally, I don't, although the idea that "democracy is the idea that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard" sometimes sounds pretty accurate - but because he speaks his mind even, and especially, when most people would just shut up and let groupthink step in. Society needs contrarians, even libertarian ones. ...more

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Nov 26, 2007 jeremy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: essays

(walter cronkite + edward murrow + hunter thompson + jon stewart + stephen colbert + keith olbermann) x 500 = 1/10 the talent, erudition, wit, morality, and character of h.l. mencken. oh, if only american journalism had anyone remarkably comparable today.

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Dec 07, 2018 Reader Variety rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: commentary, essays, politics

The great thing about reading Mencken's essays in 2018 is to understand how little has changed in our political landscape. By changing a few names and references Mencken's work could easily be offered as current political and social commentary on our unwieldy, but hopefully resilient, system.

Examining different views of morality and etiquette: "The Englishman, surprising his wife with a lover, sues the rogue for damages and has public opinion behind him, but for an American to do it would be for ...more

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Oct 24, 2020 Stevefk rated it liked it · review of another edition

Been dipping into this book for 10 to 15 years, and finally finished it. Very hit and miss. His prose is often entertaining, but the essays themselves will depend upon where the reader's viewpoint stands to begin with in determining the level of appreciation he/she has for the content. I doubt Mencken changes any minds with his snarky personality. I loved his takedown of organized religion, and the selfishness of farmers, but his view that all politicians are equally horrible, no exceptions, is ...more

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Jan 22, 2017 Gregg Jones rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: civics, history, literature, philosophy

PREJUDICES - THIRD SERIES

By H. L. MENCKEN

Published, October, 1922

I read this book about mid 1960s and was not that impressed with it. Oh, it made sense and was relevant but at 16 your mind is in other places. Now that I am more aged and my priority is not going out on Friday night, I can find new truths and insights. This book covered Mencken’s analysis of 5 random Americans and how the contributed to American literature and politics. One is Abraham Lincoln (the other 4 were Paul Elmer More, Ma PREJUDICES - THIRD SERIES

By H. L. MENCKEN

Published, October, 1922

I read this book about mid 1960s and was not that impressed with it. Oh, it made sense and was relevant but at 16 your mind is in other places. Now that I am more aged and my priority is not going out on Friday night, I can find new truths and insights. This book covered Mencken’s analysis of 5 random Americans and how the contributed to American literature and politics. One is Abraham Lincoln (the other 4 were Paul Elmer More, Madison Cawein, Frank Harris and
Havelock Ellis) and Mencken admires him but also lays it on the line about Lincoln. Was he the savior of America during the Civil War? Mencken would say otherwise.

Back in the first half of the 20th century, America became very pro-Confederate. So many of our military posts had (and still have) been named in honor of Confederate heroes (Fort AP Hill, Polk, and so many more). So many books and the Media showed the South in a positive light (Gone With The Wind, Gen R E Lee, and so many more). What was it that started America to promote the South in the first part of the 20th Century? Well one of many reasons can be traced to some of America’s greatest writers such as H. L. Mencken. In his book “Prejudices” he presents Lincoln’s Gettysburg address as a lie. He admired the Gettysburg Address as a great oratory but not as truth.

“But let us not forget that it is oratory, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it! Put it into the cold words of everyday! The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination — “that government of the people, by the people, for the people,” should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves. What was the practical effect of the battle of Gettysburg? What else than the destruction of the old sovereignty of the States, i. e., of the people of the States? The Confederates went into battle an absolutely free people; they came out with their freedom subject to the supervision and vote of the rest of the country—and for nearly twenty years that vote was so effective that they enjoyed scarcely any freedom at all. Am I the first American to note the fundamental nonsensicality of the Gettysburg address? If so, I plead my aesthetic joy in it in amelioration of the sacrilege.”

Today, we are taught, just the opposite and if you believe H.L. Menchen’s logic you will find yourself facing the hostile politically correct prejudice of today’s media.
...more

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May 28, 2013 Al rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Mencken's views on the police in several of his essays show he knew they were a threat to liberty, or at the very least, a rude awakening for people who think we have liberty. He notes that if they come to your house in error, you tell them so, and then flee their obviously mean intent, they will cheerfully beat you to the pulp in any state of this union.

His assessment of critics of each age as mostly unable to correctly appreciate the better artists of their age was true then, and now. His ass ...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Erik rated it really liked it · review of another edition

For a follower of Nietzsche, Mencken is a strange old bird. Nietzsche went after Jesus and Socrates. HLM fulminated against William Jennings Bryan and the chatauqua. However, there is some great stuff in here. An appreciation of music critic James Huneker that sent me to his work. An essay on Baltimore vs. New York that Chesterton could have written. He was certainly correct that Prohibition was a lunatic stab by the country against the city, and The Husbandman is one of the truest things writte ...more

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Jul 18, 2007 Jesse rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: men who part their hair right down the middle

I actually have a lovely old two-volume 1920s edition given to me by a friend. The literal mustiness of the pages makes the intermittently musty bits more palatable. Some of it's still sharp. He was a tack, that Mencken. ...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Juliana Rausch rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

why didn't someone tell me i'm not smart enough to read mencken? i am filled with self-hatred since reading prejudices.

...more

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Mar 30, 2014 Matt Cavedon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Endearingly Nietzschean, for an American; fantastic humor, rhetoric, and observations

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Oct 20, 2010 Mark rated it it was amazing

Not much to say, it's Mencken. It's brilliant. Surprised no one's bothered referencing his essay "The Cult of Hope" in discussing Obama. ...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Grim-Anal King rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Good writing; mostly apposite disdain; even the nonsense is good nonsense.

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Feb 28, 2009 Douglas Wilson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: culture-studies

Just great.

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About H.L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken

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Henry Louis "H.L." Mencken became one of the most influential and prolific journalists in America in the 1920s and '30s, writing about all the shams and con artists in the world. He attacked chiropractors and the Ku Klux Klan, politicians and other journalists. Most of all, he attacked Puritan morality. He called Puritanism, "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."

At the height o ...more