THE SKULL OF YORICK: The Emptiness of American Thinking at a Time of Grave Peril--...

From the author of A Nation Gone Blind: America in an Age of Simplification and Deceit (2006), seventeen literary-political essays ask whether Americans can remain a nation of liars ("U.S.A.—Land of Liars") without inevitably bringing about the eternal death of the republic. "The 'Debate' Over 9/11" asks this question, as does "The Premeditated Murder of the United States of America." Readers will find the question asked—and answered—in "Howard Zinn and the Tea Cozy," "Is Dwight Garner a Dissembler, Deceiver, and Malefactor to His Nation?", and in "Our Enemies the Left Gatekeepers" parts 1, 2, and 3. They'll find it asked yet again, and answered, in pieces like "Amy Goodman: A Mind Prostituted," "The Pernicious Hypisy of Frank Rich of the New York Times" parts 1 and 2, "Poisoned Nation, Poisoned Truth," and in the ambitious final piece as it zeroes in on lies and emptiness in writers like Frank Rich, Dwight Garner, Rebecca Solnit, Don Delillo, and Thomas L. Friedman and asks "Can the Literary Life Exist in a Post-1984 Nation?"