Walter Lippmann and the American Century — 7 “Agitation Isn’t My Job”

1. 1. The New Republic's first issue was published on November 7, 1914, three months into World War I, which the editors had not anticipated.
2. 2. The New Republic aimed to 'start little insurrections in the realm of their convictions' among well-educated reformers.
3. 3. Theodore Roosevelt was an early supporter of the New Republic, and the editors flattered him, hoping he would use the magazine as a stepping-stone back to the White House.
4. 4. The New Republic editors quarreled with Roosevelt over his support for U.S. intervention in Mexico, leading Roosevelt to accuse them of 'personal disloyalty' and dismiss them as 'three circumcised Jews and three anemic Christians.'
5. 5. Lippmann's book 'Drift and Mastery' was published alongside the launch of the New Republic, and critics praised it as a mature work.
6. 6. In 'Drift and Mastery,' Lippmann shifted from celebrating intuition to emphasizing scientific management and rational planning for society.
7. 7. Lippmann argued that the modern corporation had 'sucked the life out of private property' by divorcing ownership from control, anticipating Berle and Means' later study.
8. 8. Lippmann's argument that corporate managers were more interested in the public good than private profit was later criticized as naive.
9. 9. Lippmann broke with socialism, dismissing Marxist theorists as 'interested pedants of destiny' and the American socialist movement as a 'great citadel of dogma.'
10. 10. Lippmann criticized Woodrow Wilson's 'New Freedom' as a nostalgic reversion to the nineteenth century, favoring small competitors over national progress.
11. 11. Lippmann wrote a devastating portrait of Upton Sinclair, describing his work as 'products of his hate' and his self-pity as 'almost a disease.'
12. 12. Lippmann admired John Reed's reporting from Mexico, calling it 'genius' and saying 'with Jack Reed reporting begins.'
13. 13. Lippmann and John Reed's friendship ended as Reed embraced revolution and Lippmann reform; Lippmann severed ties with the Socialist Party in spring 1915.
14. 14. An encounter with Isadora Duncan confirmed Lippmann's doubts about radical frivolity; he called it 'a nasty, absurd mess.'
15. 15. Lippmann criticized 'dilettante rebels' who mistake discussion for action, calling it 'a form of lazy thoughtlessness.'
16. 16. Hutchins Hapgood said of Lippmann, 'God doesn't manifest himself at all in Walter Lippmann,' reflecting radicals' view of him as cold and condescending.
17. 17. Lippmann wrote poignantly about the gray emptiness of urban life, describing 'hall bedrooms in which hope dies and lives the ghost of itself in baseball scores and in movies.'
18. 18. Lippmann argued that the modern utopia must be built on 'a life of vision, not merely a life and a vision,' requiring engagement with the real world.
19. 19. Lippmann admitted that most of his writing rested on 'guesses and hopes,' and he did not love any idea enough to worry if compelled to abandon it.