Walter Karp
Encyclopedia
Walter Karp was an American journalist, historian
, and writer published in magazines such as American Heritage
and Horizon
, and also was a contributing editor for Harper's magazine
(edited by friend Lewis H. Lapham
), which re-published some of his political history books in 2003. As an historian, he emphasized the close relationship between domestic and international politics, and the shallowness of the modern two-party system of the US, proposing power and militarism
— not money — as the corrupting influences upon politics
.
Walter Karp was born in Brooklyn
, New York City, and studied anthropology
at Columbia College of Columbia University
, and was graduated as valedictorian
of the class of 1955. He began his career as a popular science
writer, penning Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species (1968) a young-adult book about Charles Darwin
. Later, he began writing about politics
, his opposition response to the Vietnam War
(1945–76). In 1969, he and H. R. Shapiro, a friend and fellow writer, founded the fortnightly magazine
The Public Life, which W. H. Auden
praised. As an intellectual
, he named Thomas Jefferson
and Hannah Arendt
as two great influences, and the Founding Fathers of the United States
as political influences, thus the eighteenth-century inflection of his literary style
.
impelled the United States to fight the Spanish-American War
(April–August 1898) and how Woodrow Wilson
compelled intervention to the First World War (1914–18) — and how they determined the USA’s emergence as an imperial
world power.
What impelled the US to fight Spain with the Spanish–American War was not a war-crazed public infected with yellow journalism
(most historians’ conventional wisdom
) — but the collusion of an ambitious political party
pair seeking to again make the US a country “safe for oligarchy”. That was their response to the Populist
movement of the 1890s, a destabilising threat to the “Republican–Democrat” two-party system. Moreover, despite the US defeating Imperial Spain
— within the Republican Party
, the Populist movement soon yielded to a Progressive
movement led by Senator Robert La Follette
, which culminated in the presidential election of 1912, wherein more than 70 per cent of the votes were for progressive and other candidates, leaving the incumbent US President, William Howard Taft
(1909–13), in third place; thus “The privileged interests . . . seemed about to receive their death blow. Government of, by, and for the people was about to be restored to the American Republic.”
Yet, the man elected US president in 1912, Woodrow Wilson
, was “a man driven by vaunting ambition” with very different plans for the republic
. Originally very conservative
, with a strong belief in laissez-faire
capitalism
, he believed himself a “man of destiny”, and altered his political beliefs to seek elected office. As an historian, Wilson dreamed of negotiating a treaty among the warring European imperial powers, yet knew that, as President, he would have to compel the US into the Great War
, in order to fulfil his statesman
’s ambition of setting Imperial Europe aright. Hence his Presidential favoritism towards the Allies
and inflexible antagonism towards the Germans
and the Central Powers
— despite every belligerent having violated international law
in prosecuting the war; to suit his political, man-of-destiny ambitions, President Woodrow Wilson embroiled the US in a European war.
Most noteworthy is the First Red Scare
(1917–20), the Wilson Administration’s extended war-time suppression of the civil liberties
of anti-war critics, thus the comparison between the war-time behaviors of President Lincoln
and President Wilson: “Americans under Lincoln enjoyed every liberty that could possibly be spared; in a war safely fought 3,000 miles from our own shores, Americans under Wilson lost every liberty they could possibly be deprived of”. The war-time suppression of liberty “struck the American Republic a blow from which it has never recovered.”
In 2003, Harper’s magazine editor Lewis Lapham compared The Politics of War to the works of Henry Adams, emphasising its contemporary relevance, in that “Karp offers a clearer understanding of our current political circumstance than can be found in any two or twenty of the volumes published over the last ten years by the herd of Washington journalists grazing on the White House lawn.”
Liberty Under Siege: American Politics 1976–1988 (1989) develops the thematic line of articles written for Harper's magazine, proposing that the Republican and the Democratic parties colluded to undermine the presidency of the “feeble Democrat” Jimmy Carter
(1976–80), and replace him with the “liar and tyrant” Ronald Reagan
(1980–84, 84–88). Despite the harshly accurate assessment of the time chronicled, Liberty Under Siege concludes reiterating the historian’s trust in Jeffersonian democracy
.
The Two Americas article presents his perspectives of democracy
and patriotism
; citing the Pledge of Allegiance
, he proposes that the United States of America is two countries — a republic
and a nation
; the republic “exists for its own sake”, whilst the nation only exists relative to other nations — therefore, it is most alive when at war
. He often quoted Lincoln’s praise of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay
as a man who “loved his country, partly because it was his own country, but mostly because it was a free country.”
“The public school system: ‘Usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek subservience to authority’ ”.
“The most esteemed journalists are precisely the most servile. For it is by making themselves useful to the powerful that they gain access to the ‘best’ sources”. (Harper’s magazine, July 1989)
“Professors of American history erect Gothic cathedrals of erudition on political axioms acquired from their fifth-grade ‘social studies’ readers”. (“Buried Alive”, Harper’s magazine, May 1980, p. 63)
“In one form or another, my enemies believe that the few should rule the many and that the many should shut their traps”. (an interview in American Heritagemagazine)
Excerpts
Excerpts
Excerpts
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, and writer published in magazines such as American Heritage
American Heritage (magazine)
American Heritage is a quarterly magazine dedicated to covering the history of the United States for a mainstream readership. Until 2007, the magazine was published by Forbes. Since that time, Edwin S...
and Horizon
Horizon (U.S. magazine)
Horizon was a magazine published in the United States from 1958 to 1989. Originally published by American Heritage as a bi-monthly hardback, Horizon was subtitled A Magazine of the Arts. In 1978 Boone Inc. bought the magazine, which continued to cover the arts...
, and also was a contributing editor for Harper's magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
(edited by friend Lewis H. Lapham
Lewis H. Lapham
Lewis H. Lapham is an American writer. He was the editor of the American monthly Harper's Magazine from 1976 until 1981, and from 1983 until 2006. He also is the founder of the eponymous publication about history and literature entitled Lapham's Quarterly. He has written numerous books on...
), which re-published some of his political history books in 2003. As an historian, he emphasized the close relationship between domestic and international politics, and the shallowness of the modern two-party system of the US, proposing power and militarism
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
— not money — as the corrupting influences upon politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
.
Walter Karp was born in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York City, and studied anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and was graduated as valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
of the class of 1955. He began his career as a popular science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
writer, penning Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species (1968) a young-adult book about Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. Later, he began writing about politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, his opposition response to the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
(1945–76). In 1969, he and H. R. Shapiro, a friend and fellow writer, founded the fortnightly magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
The Public Life, which W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
praised. As an intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
, he named Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
and Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
as two great influences, and the Founding Fathers of the United States
Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...
as political influences, thus the eighteenth-century inflection of his literary style
Style (fiction)
In fiction, style is the manner in which the author tells the story. Along with plot, character, theme, and setting, style is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.-Fiction-writing modes:...
.
Works
The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American Republic 1890–1920 (1979) reports how William McKinleyWilliam McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
impelled the United States to fight the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
(April–August 1898) and how Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
compelled intervention to the First World War (1914–18) — and how they determined the USA’s emergence as an imperial
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
world power.
What impelled the US to fight Spain with the Spanish–American War was not a war-crazed public infected with yellow journalism
Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism or the yellow press is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism...
(most historians’ conventional wisdom
Conventional wisdom
Conventional wisdom is a term used to describe ideas or explanations that are generally accepted as true by the public or by experts in a field. Such ideas or explanations, though widely held, are unexamined. Unqualified societal discourse preserves the status quo. It codifies existing social...
) — but the collusion of an ambitious political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
pair seeking to again make the US a country “safe for oligarchy”. That was their response to the Populist
Populist Party (United States)
The People's Party, also known as the "Populists", was a short-lived political party in the United States established in 1891. It was most important in 1892-96, then rapidly faded away...
movement of the 1890s, a destabilising threat to the “Republican–Democrat” two-party system. Moreover, despite the US defeating Imperial Spain
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
— within the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, the Populist movement soon yielded to a Progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
movement led by Senator Robert La Follette
Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
Robert Marion "Fighting Bob" La Follette, Sr. , was an American Republican politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was the Governor of Wisconsin, and was also a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin...
, which culminated in the presidential election of 1912, wherein more than 70 per cent of the votes were for progressive and other candidates, leaving the incumbent US President, William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
(1909–13), in third place; thus “The privileged interests . . . seemed about to receive their death blow. Government of, by, and for the people was about to be restored to the American Republic.”
Yet, the man elected US president in 1912, Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, was “a man driven by vaunting ambition” with very different plans for the republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
. Originally very conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
, with a strong belief in laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, he believed himself a “man of destiny”, and altered his political beliefs to seek elected office. As an historian, Wilson dreamed of negotiating a treaty among the warring European imperial powers, yet knew that, as President, he would have to compel the US into the Great War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, in order to fulfil his statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
’s ambition of setting Imperial Europe aright. Hence his Presidential favoritism towards the Allies
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
and inflexible antagonism towards the Germans
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
and the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
— despite every belligerent having violated international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
in prosecuting the war; to suit his political, man-of-destiny ambitions, President Woodrow Wilson embroiled the US in a European war.
Most noteworthy is the First Red Scare
Red Scare
Durrell Blackwell Durrell Blackwell The term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong Anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare was about worker revolution and...
(1917–20), the Wilson Administration’s extended war-time suppression of the civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
of anti-war critics, thus the comparison between the war-time behaviors of President Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and President Wilson: “Americans under Lincoln enjoyed every liberty that could possibly be spared; in a war safely fought 3,000 miles from our own shores, Americans under Wilson lost every liberty they could possibly be deprived of”. The war-time suppression of liberty “struck the American Republic a blow from which it has never recovered.”
In 2003, Harper’s magazine editor Lewis Lapham compared The Politics of War to the works of Henry Adams, emphasising its contemporary relevance, in that “Karp offers a clearer understanding of our current political circumstance than can be found in any two or twenty of the volumes published over the last ten years by the herd of Washington journalists grazing on the White House lawn.”
Liberty Under Siege: American Politics 1976–1988 (1989) develops the thematic line of articles written for Harper's magazine, proposing that the Republican and the Democratic parties colluded to undermine the presidency of the “feeble Democrat” Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
(1976–80), and replace him with the “liar and tyrant” Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
(1980–84, 84–88). Despite the harshly accurate assessment of the time chronicled, Liberty Under Siege concludes reiterating the historian’s trust in Jeffersonian democracy
Jeffersonian democracy
Jeffersonian Democracy, so named after its leading advocate Thomas Jefferson, is a term used to describe one of two dominant political outlooks and movements in the United States from the 1790s to the 1820s. The term was commonly used to refer to the Democratic-Republican Party which Jefferson...
.
The Two Americas article presents his perspectives of democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
; citing the Pledge of Allegiance
Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is an expression of loyalty to the federal flag and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942...
, he proposes that the United States of America is two countries — a republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
and a nation
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
; the republic “exists for its own sake”, whilst the nation only exists relative to other nations — therefore, it is most alive when at war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
. He often quoted Lincoln’s praise of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
as a man who “loved his country, partly because it was his own country, but mostly because it was a free country.”
Quotations
“The left and right wings of the party establishment — two great pinions of an ancient bird of prey”. (Liberty Under Siege, p.100)“The public school system: ‘Usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek subservience to authority’ ”.
“The most esteemed journalists are precisely the most servile. For it is by making themselves useful to the powerful that they gain access to the ‘best’ sources”. (Harper’s magazine, July 1989)
“Professors of American history erect Gothic cathedrals of erudition on political axioms acquired from their fifth-grade ‘social studies’ readers”. (“Buried Alive”, Harper’s magazine, May 1980, p. 63)
“In one form or another, my enemies believe that the few should rule the many and that the many should shut their traps”. (an interview in American Heritagemagazine)
Political
Lewis Lapham's introduction to the 2003 reissue of The Politics of War ExcerptsExcerpts
Excerpts
Excerpts
External links
- http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1989/7/1989_7_158.shtml Interview of Karp by his daughter Jane Karp published in American HeritageAmerican HeritageAmerican Heritage can refer to:* American Heritage * American Heritage * The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language* American Heritage Rivers* American Heritage School -See also:...
] - Issue 13 (May 3, 1996) of The Last Ditch magazine, devoted to Walter Karp
- Walter Karp (1934-1989): War Critic and Republican Theorist, by Joseph Stromberg
- Photo of Karp and brief description
- Quotes from Karp
- Quotes from Karp
- Why Johnny Can't Think: The Politics of Bad Schooling, Harper's Magazine, June 1985
- List of Harper's Magazine Articles by Karp
- List of Harper's Magazine Letters by Karp
- List of Harper's Magazine Reviews by Karp
- Obituary in Harper's Magazine by Lewis Lapham
- Yankee Doodle Dandy by Lewis Lapham Essay on the relevance of Karp's The Politics of War to the American war in Iraq
- New York Times Obituary