David Samuels

1 week ago | tabletmag.com | David Samuels

In America, the popular arts reign supreme. It is an unfortunate truth, and I say this speaking as a literary snob, that you can take all the novels, poems, symphonies, and operas ever written by Americans and burn them in a trash can fire under the Manhattan Bridge without any great diminishment in the global storehouse of the fine arts. The American genius has always resided more in the hybrid arts, like popular songs and cartoons, than it did in forms that it borrowed from Europe.

Jan 14, 2025 | businessandamerica.com | David Samuels

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Jan 13, 2025 | unherd.com | David Samuels

A complete unknownBob DylanCultureFolk musicUSWalt WhitmanWoody Guthrie The American birthright entails both the freedom and often times the necessity of making yourself up from scratch. Many of America’s most famous heroes were self-made men, from Benjamin Franklin to Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. The same is true for the protagonists of America’s best-loved tales, from Huckleberry Finn to Jay Gatsby.

Dec 26, 2024 | unherd.com | David Samuels

Barack ObamaDemocratic PartyDonald TrumpKamala HarrisPoliticsRepublican PartyUS It was long past midnight in Livingston, Montana, when Donald Trump finally stood up to address the nation as President-elect of the United States, having won the landslide victory that had eluded him in his successful run in 2016 and again in his re-election bid in 2020. This time, the American people had overwhelmingly voted for change. They had voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

Dec 22, 2024 | lucianne.com | David Samuels

Original ArticlePosted By: Hermoine, 12/22/2024 9:27:20 AMIf anyone in the future cares enough to write an authentic history of the 2024 presidential campaign, they might begin by noting that American politics exists downstream of American culture, which is a deep and broad river. Like any river, American culture follows a particular path, which has been reconfigured at key moments by new technologies.