Na New Criterion:

Lapham’s latest folly

The notebooks of the English aesthete Geoffrey Madan (1895–1947) are a trove of amusing aperçus, anecdotes, and apothegms. Among the many memorable gems Madan collected was the description of one now-forgotten character as “an intellectual without an intellect.” We thought of that observation while contemplating the inaugural issue of Lapham’s Quarterly, which rolled off the press last month. It’s been a few years since we’ve had occasion to notice Lewis H. Lapham in this space. In October 2004, we reported on “Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill.” This 7,500-word philippic appeared in the September 2004 issue of Harper’s, the magazine Mr. Lapham edited, with a brief hiatus in the early 1980s, from 1976 to 2006. What recommended “Tentacles of Rage” to the public’s attention was not the heat of its invective—shrill and irresponsible though that was—but its mendacity. As we pointed out at the time, the piece was littered with falsehoods, the most notorious of which was his “account” of some speeches at the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden. “While listening to the hollow rattle of the rhetorical brass and tin,” Mr. Lapham intoned, “I remembered …” Listened? Remembered? Alas, Mr. Lapham neglected to take the elementary precaution of publishing his piece after the event he was reporting on, so his fabrication was not only obvious but irrefutable. Confronted with his dereliction, Mr. Lapham waxed petulant: OK, so he made it up: he didn’t actually have to listen to what was said because he already knew the kinds of things Republicans always say.