The Second American Revolution and Other Essays 1976 - 1982

by Gore Vidal

These nineteen essays richly confirm Gore Vidal's reputation as "America's finest essayist" (The New Statesman), and are further evidence of the breadth and depth of his intelligence and wit. Included here are his highly praised essays on Theodore Roosevelt ("An American Sissy"), F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edmund Wilson ("This Critic and This Gin and These Shoes"), the need for a new constitutional convention—as well as his controversial study of relations between the homosexual and Jewish communities ("Pink Triangle and Yellow Star"). Vidal's other subjects range from Christopher Isherwood to L. Frank Baum ("The OZ BOoks"), from the question of "Who Makes the Movies?" to the misadventures—religious and financial—of Bert Lance.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, History, American, Literature, Politics

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Works of American writer Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, noted for his cynical humor and his numerous accounts of society in decline, include the play The Best Man (1960) and the novel Myra Breckinridge (1968) .

People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.

Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.

Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.

They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.

At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde

Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.

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Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).

Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).

Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.

Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.

Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.

Reviews

[Frederick Gault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always at his strongest in his Essays, Vidal lays out a very jaundiced view of The USA, which he contends is an empire in decline, and has only one ruling party the "BANK" party with two wings, Democratic and Republican. These 2 parties pretend to give the voters a choice. The military industrial complex is the mechanism by which the BANK party takes taxpayer funds and funnels them into their profits. This means, again according to Vidal, that our Empire must be constantly at war to justify the massive military (read BANK cash cow) budget. In order to frighten the public into going along with this, there must be an evil empire to justify the military budget. In Vidal's day it was Communism, today it is Terrorism. This is a pretty dark view of the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" but it is not far from the truth, I fear.

[Sketchbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vidal is best w his essays. His scorched earth policy hits
bull's eye w collected thoughts on Fitzgerald, Doris Lessing,
Making Movies and homophobes, partick like Normie Podhoretz, an alien from Uranus, who - happily - is suffering from a stroke. His novels are slick, but Vidal is an acute social critic.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The collective wisdom about Gore Vidal's essays is that those on literary topics are his best work, better than his novels, whereas the political essays—nearly as numerous—are not as good. This book collects a roughly even number of both types. Most were initially published in the New York Review of Books, an interestingly named publication, since much of what appears there, often erudite, frequently witty, are not book reviews in the usual sense.
Granted, when I read those on political topics in succession, they overlap. It’s evident that Vidal had some favorite themes (who doesn’t?) and that he had honed these to the high art of aphorism. Or perhaps the low art of sound-bite, forged in the course of his frequent appearances on the TV talk show circuit. The essay that gives this volume its name features many of these pet views: the Constitution was "framed" (he savors the fact that this is the verb commonly used to describe the process) to protect the monied class. Ever since, the putative republic has been an oligarchy, despite the illusion of choice at election time. Were such views outrageous at the time? Forty years on, they seem prescient, so I enjoyed reading them.
The literary essays, meanwhile, are as good as their reputation. Vidal was a master of the form, and despite not being reviews in the strict sense of the term, they often made we want to locate and read immediately whatever book he was discussing.

[Cary Boswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vidal's essays published in the New York Review of Books, Nation, and other periodicals between 1976-1982. With witty analysis he discusses writers (Scott Fitzgerald, Edmund Wilson, Frank Baum & others) and politicians Teddy Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Abe Lincoln, as well as current political issues.
I don't agree with his assessment of Lincoln.

[Alexa Doran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cutting. Hilarious. BEYOND RELEVANT. BEYOND BEYOND RELEVANT. I cannot recommend the last few essays enough. I never knew I needed Vidal's voice in my life but omfg. Better than air.

[Justin Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Second American Revolution (1983) is one of Gore Vidal’s best collections of essays, covering 1976-1982. He covers a wide array of topics, from the lackluster career of F. Scott Fitzgerald and the pathbreaking honesty of Christopher Isherwood to the early life of Theodore Roosevelt and the need for a new American republic. I was especially taken with his essay on L. Frank Baum of the Wizard of Oz books, which enchanted his young mind. Vidal correctly points out that the supposed allegory of the Oz books, taken to be a defense of bimetallism, was a post-hoc creation. In reality, Baum himself wasn’t political and the novels are merely a reflection of his vivid imagination. I also really enjoyed the essay “Pink Triangle and Yellow Star,” which is a scathing critique of the conservative Jewish community and its explicit homophobia.

The eponymous essay is one of my favorite pieces of Vidal’s writing. In it, Vidal acts as a shadow American statesman, noting the flaws throughout the Constitution and how it could be improved. In particular, he notes that the Supreme Court was never supposed to review the acts of Congress via judicial review, largely an imposition codified by Chief Justice John Marshall. Rather, Congress actually has explicit powers to review decisions by the Supreme Court. This insight is prescient in our age of an extreme right-wing court that has thrown out decades of precedent in many recent cases, with Congress doing nothing to balance out the court’s usurpation of power. Vidal also calls for the House of Representatives to have more power and its majority to establish an executive cabinet. In essence, Vidal suggests a more parliamentary system of government, with the House of Representatives as the strongest branch of government, the Senate as review of the House’s decisions, and a President and Supreme Court reigned in by the Congress. Perhaps in our own time we will be able to implement something of a “fourth republic”, as Vidal called his package of suggestions.

Vidal is a terrific essayist, easily moving from literature to history to politics with the grace of a master, and the Second American Revolution is a clear testament to his power.

[livros.da.sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for college
- Sex is Politics
- Pink Triangle and Yellow Star

[Wsnoren · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5