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jared_davis's review
3.0
Dos Passos writes bitterly in this later book, compared to the frentic, sometimes irrationally exuberant tone in the U.S.A. Trilogy. From the start -- with the scathing portrayal of MacArthur as a "brass hat" and "the unready" whose popularity seems based on a realization in his early career that he had "a bad press" that he needed to combat with PRO -- reads like a an indictment of America that failed to achieve both the capitalist and the socialist utopia.
I should read more closely to understand Dos Passos' point of view better.
I should read more closely to understand Dos Passos' point of view better.
blackoxford's review
4.0
An Unhopeful Postscript
No one knew the America of his time better than Dos Passos. The follow-on to his USA trilogy, Mid-Century, I read as a sort of disappointed postscript. The USA books were somewhat dismal in their description of the emergence of the striving but purposeless corporate society after WW I. But they also had a spark of hope. Their sense was something along the lines of "Once this all settles down we might be able to do something about this mess."
Dos Passos adopts John Stuart Mills's very pragmatist ethic as his own: "If all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind." What he feared were the individuals and institutions that violated this principle.
So his characterisation of the labour leader Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers is pointed: "He was so convinced of the probity of his own intentions that he never could believe in the probity of people who had other ideas." He was, in short, a bully whose objective always included the silencing of opposition, inside as well as outside the union.
He also saw that bullying had become an unparalleled art form in America after WW II. The McCarthy Hearings, the Cold War, the growing middle-class self-satisfaction, the emergence of what President Eisenhower called the Military Industrial Complex were institutional manifestations of the Reuther personality. Dos Passos said what few others dared, "Institutions are built on zeal. They are also built on fear." Mid-century is a chronicle of pervasive but suppressed fear.
There was also an intellectual component to this institutional fear. It not only produced technological advances in destructive power, it also inhibited an indeterminate range of human activities. Robert Oppenheimer, the 'Father of the Atom Bomb' is quoted explicitly, "Any form of knowledge really precludes other forms. Any serious study of one thing cuts off other parts of your life." What economists call 'opportunity costs', that is the loss from not doing something else, was potentially enormous but because of their nature incalculable.
Finally, a sort of social smugness, an unjustified feeling of superiority with a distinct anti-intellectual caste, pervaded America. Dos Passos summarises this sentiment with poetic terseness, "So many Americans felt that their neighbour had no right to know more than they did." The entire country it seemed had lost its way. One character notes, "Idealism without ethics is no compass."
One must ask if the situation has improved by End-Century and beyond? The fact that Mid-Century has never been reviewed before on GoodReads suggests that the question is not popular.
No one knew the America of his time better than Dos Passos. The follow-on to his USA trilogy, Mid-Century, I read as a sort of disappointed postscript. The USA books were somewhat dismal in their description of the emergence of the striving but purposeless corporate society after WW I. But they also had a spark of hope. Their sense was something along the lines of "Once this all settles down we might be able to do something about this mess."
Dos Passos adopts John Stuart Mills's very pragmatist ethic as his own: "If all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind." What he feared were the individuals and institutions that violated this principle.
So his characterisation of the labour leader Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers is pointed: "He was so convinced of the probity of his own intentions that he never could believe in the probity of people who had other ideas." He was, in short, a bully whose objective always included the silencing of opposition, inside as well as outside the union.
He also saw that bullying had become an unparalleled art form in America after WW II. The McCarthy Hearings, the Cold War, the growing middle-class self-satisfaction, the emergence of what President Eisenhower called the Military Industrial Complex were institutional manifestations of the Reuther personality. Dos Passos said what few others dared, "Institutions are built on zeal. They are also built on fear." Mid-century is a chronicle of pervasive but suppressed fear.
There was also an intellectual component to this institutional fear. It not only produced technological advances in destructive power, it also inhibited an indeterminate range of human activities. Robert Oppenheimer, the 'Father of the Atom Bomb' is quoted explicitly, "Any form of knowledge really precludes other forms. Any serious study of one thing cuts off other parts of your life." What economists call 'opportunity costs', that is the loss from not doing something else, was potentially enormous but because of their nature incalculable.
Finally, a sort of social smugness, an unjustified feeling of superiority with a distinct anti-intellectual caste, pervaded America. Dos Passos summarises this sentiment with poetic terseness, "So many Americans felt that their neighbour had no right to know more than they did." The entire country it seemed had lost its way. One character notes, "Idealism without ethics is no compass."
One must ask if the situation has improved by End-Century and beyond? The fact that Mid-Century has never been reviewed before on GoodReads suggests that the question is not popular.
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