Examination of Ignatius Donnelly, Essay Example

Abstract

The objective of this work is to examine Ignatius Donnelly, Emma Goldman, H.L. Mencken, and Whittaker Chambers as being outside the mainstream of the era during which each lived as an adult and how these provided a window into the America in which they lived or about which they thought. This work will answer whether this is the case and if so will explain why and if not will explain why. This work will answer as to who among the four offered the most telling critique of America and American life and why?

Examination of Ignatius Donnelly, Emma Goldman, H.L. Mencken, and Whittaker Chambers as Outside of the Mainstream During the Era of their Adult Lives

Introduction

The objective of this work is to examine Ignatius Donnelly, Emma Goldman, H.L. Mencken, and Whittaker Chambers as being outside the mainstream of the era during which each lived as an adult and how these provided a window into the America in which they lived or about which they thought. This work will answer whether this is the case and if so will explain why and if not will explain why. This work will answer as to who among the four offered the most telling critique of America and American life and why?

Donnelly

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly was a U.S. Congress, populist writer and amateur scientist and contributed greatly to the theories of Atlantis, Catastrophism as well as other areas of study. Donnelly is reported to have joined the Democratic Party banner. Donnelly is reported to have abandoned poetry for political speeches, and was the featured speaker for the Democratic Party country convention at Independence Square.” (PA Books) By the third year of Donnelly’s political career, his loyalties were reported to be already questionable. In 1855, Donnelly withdrew from his race for the state legislature to support his Whig opponent’s bid. Donnelly and his wife had planned to found their own city: Nininger City with Donnelly being in charge of the newspaper ‘The Emigrant Aid Journal’. When the city failed. Donnelly left politics for a literary career and was instrumental in founding the Populist Party. Donnelly’s literature included “Caesar’s Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century”, “Doctor Huguet” and “The Golden Bottle” as well as other works in writing Donnelly’s work was ridiculed by some and honored by others and was controversial in his day. (PA Books, paraphrased)

Chambers

Whitaker Chambers is reported to be “the most important American defector from Communism” since he, while editor at Time, “identified Alger Hiss, a golden boy of the liberal establishment as a fellow member of his underground Communist cell in the 1930s.” (Schlesinger) Hiss was a former assistant to the Secretary of State and former General Secretary of the United Nations found conference at San Francisco, and president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.” (Schlesinger) Chamber’s best-selling memoir of 1952 was entitled “Witness” and is reported to have been a book that was powerful yet “powerfully overwrought and wrongheaded…” as well. (Schlesinger) Chambers held that the social reform in the New Deal “put a country on the slippery slope toward totalitarianism.” (Schlesinger) Chambers saw the final world conflict as one that would occur “between the two great camps of men – those who reject and those who worship God.” (Schlesinger) It is reported as follows of Chambers concerning his testimony against Hiss “In fact, the backlash against Chambers had already begun during the trials when Hiss and various sections of the media joined forces to portray Chambers as a psychopath and habitual liar.” (Knight) It is clear that Chambers must have at times questioned his decision to transform from communist to anti-communist based upon the reception of at least part of the American society.

Mencken

Mencken is described as the “most influential American literary critic in the 1920s” and is stated to have often made use of literary criticism “as a point of departure to jab at American weaknesses. It is reported of Mencken that his reviews and essays totaled six volumes which he entitled “Prejudices”. (The American, paraphrased) In these works, Mencken is reported to have “fulminated against writers he regarded as fraudulently successful and proselytized for such outstanding newcomers as Theodore Dreiser and Sinclair Lewis. He jeered at American sham, pretension, provincialism, and prudery, and ridiculed organized religion, business, and the middle class (the “booboisie”). In the 1930s his opinions became increasingly conservative and sometimes reactionary.” (The American)

Goldman

Emma Goldman is described as “radical” and was held by many to be extremely dangerous due to her commitment to the ideal of “absolute freedom” which “led her to espouse a wide range of controversial causes.” (Jewish Women’s Archives) Goldman was both a “fiery orator and gifted writer” as well as a “passionate advocate of freedom of expression, sexual freedom and birth control, equality and independence for women, radical education, union organization and workers’ rights.” (Jewish Women’s Archives) Because many of these ideals were not popular with mainstream America, it is reported that Gold “earned…the enmity of powerful political and economic authorities.” (Jewish Women’s Archives)

Analysis

Each of these individuals offered a view of America during the era in which they participated in American society, literary pursuits in America and each individual had their own particular affect upon the public and social aspects of the country, and as well, the impact of each of these individuals was unique and significant in its own right. While Chambers provided the public a view into the workings of Communism that they otherwise never would have experienced and Mencken took jabs at writers challenging them and challenging the public to examine their writings more closely and as well while Donnelly also had a special impact upon the face of America and was himself shaped by the American era in which he lived and finally, Goldman had a great impression and impact upon the American society.

Goldman was jailed for anarchism and was seldom allowed to enter the United States however; Chambers went on to work as editor for Time Magazine following the federal hearing in which he gave testimony against Hiss. Although Goldman supported a wider range of principles of democracy than it appears did Chambers the one thing that separates the two is the fact that Chambers so conducted himself in a manner that enabled him to assimilate into the American society and to continue to fully participate in that society as compared to Goldman who served a prison sentence and was then banned from entry into the United States. Perhaps it is that society was more accepting of Chambers due to his contribution in bringing down Communist actors and perhaps Goldman was premature on the democratic scene in the support she provided for things such as abortion and the like. Each of these individuals must have felt shunned by what they believed were American principles of freedom and democracy as they were on the receiving end of ridicule and like disillusionment in regards to freedom and democracy and the principles upon which America was founded.

Summary and Conclusion

Goldman is held by this writer to be the one among these four that provided a more candid view into the life of America during the era in which she lived because she addressed so many relevant issues of freedom and because the issues that she addressed were so wide ranged. In the present, there are abortion clinics that bear the name of Goldman and her writings such as “Address to the Jury” are quite frank in their exploration and examination of the state of freedom during the era in which she lived and wrote in and on respectively, freedom in America.

References

Donnelly, Ignatius Loyola. Pabook Libraries. Date Unknown. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Donnelly__Ignatius.html

Emma Goldman ‘Address to the Jury’ delivered 9 July 1917 New York. American Rhetoric – Top 100 Speeches. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/emmagoldmanjuryaddress.htm

H.L. Mencken. The American Language. American Writers. Date Unknown. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.americanwriters.org/writers/mencken.asp

Knight, E. et al. Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 A-L. ABCCLIO 2003. Web. Retrieved from: http://phron.org/Reference/Books/Conspiracy%20Theories%20in%20American%20History.pdf

Overview Emma Goldman 1869-1940. Jewish Women’s Archive History Makers. Web. Date Unknown. Retrieved from: http://jwa.org/historymakers/goldman

Schlesinger, A. Jr. The Truest Believer. Books. Web. 9 Mar 1997. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/970309.09schlest.html