LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY

I recently put aside Herodotus and started reading the latest issue of LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY.  That's a magazine published every three months by Lewis Lapham, longtime editor of the longtime highbrow monthly HARPER'S.  Every issue has writing on a single subject, and I've been reading it faithfully since the first issue eight years ago (which was about war).

It's similar to HARPER'S in reprinting selections from a wide range of publications, but while that magazine usually focuses on recent writing, LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY publishes writers from ancient to modern times, from everywhere in the world.  It also publishes a handful of original essays (including an introduction to each issue by Lapham).

The latest issue is about politics.  I didn't care so much for the previous one, which was about magic, but this one looks pretty good so far.  I've started out by reading the original essays.  I found HW Brands' apologia for Ulysses Grant's notorious presidency rather weak.  Brands goes into great length about Grant's thought process that led to his vetoing a bill that hoped to end a severe economic downturn by printing more money, but how does he judge the final decision? "Even in hindsight it is difficult to tell whether his action DID serve the country." But I did like the articles on Kenya's recent political strife, the use of humor in US presidential politics, political novels, Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, and a review of a biography of Savonarola.

The older writing, by people like Machiavelli, John Adams and Chairman Mao, is divided into sections under the sub-headings "Power," "Citizenship," and "Government." But I'm back with Herodotus, and when I've finished the last part of that book I'll return to LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY.