The American Idea: The Best of the Atlantic Monthly
The American Idea is a complation of some of the most notable writings published in The Atlantic Monthly since its inception in 1857. The anthology begins with essays from the early founders such as Emerson and Holmes. The subsequent sections collect essays, fiction, reviews and poems broaching every subject fundamental to American history. Subjects such as war, science, religion, race, the role of women, the environment and politics. Some of the ideas published, though critically acclaimed at the time, have since been discredited, while others remain as true today as they did when published decades before.
Many of the articles published in the anthology can be found online, so if you have a minute to spare here are just a few of my favorites:
1. A Telephonic Conversation. Mark Twain. Published in 1880, Mark Twain recounts an amusing tale of his wife talking on a new rare device recently installed in their home- the telephone.
“A man delivers a single brutal “Good-by,” and that is the end of it. Not so with the gentle sex,- i say it in their praise; they cannot abide abruptness.””
2. Letter from Birmingham Jail. Martin Luther King, Jr. Written in response to a letter published by clergymen urging Civil Rights demonstrators to abandon their resistance, King wrote this letter on scraps and margins of newspapers which were smuggled out of Birmingham Jail. Rereading it recently in this anthology made me question again why this isn't in school curricula. Why members of my family, some friends and colleagues have yet to read it.
“We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. ”
3. The American Forests. John Muir. Written in 1897, this essay helped garner public supportto end the destructions of the country's woodlands by logging companies and settlers.We have John Muir to thank for the establishment of Yosemite National Park in 1890. This essay is a beautiful call to action and it's a wonder that, like for so many other things, we still need that call today.
“These forests were composed of about five hundred species of trees [...] lordly monarchs proclaiming the gospel of beauty like apostles.”