Queen Elizabeth I, c. 1600. National Portrait Gallery, London.

Queen Elizabeth I, c. 1600. National Portrait Gallery, London.

Politics

Volume V, Number 4 | fall 2012

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Preamble

Feast of Fools

By Lewis H. Lapham

How American democracy became all about the rule of money.

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Official White House portrait of President U.S. Grant, by Henry Ulke, 1875.

Tales of Brave Ulysses

By H.W. Brands

Ulysses S. Grant was overlooked by historians and underestimated by contemporaries. H.W. Brands reevaluates Grant’s presidency.

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Map

Powers That Be

Tale of the tape: monarchy, theocracy, democracy.

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Miscellany

“A horrid-looking wretch he is, sooty and scoundrelly in aspect, a cross between the nutmeg dealer, the horse swapper, and the night man,” declared a Stephen Douglas–leaning newspaper of Abraham Lincoln during the presidential race of 1860.

522 BC | Persia

Voting for Monarchy

Darius wins a one-horse race.More

2000 | Borneo

Closing Arguments

In politics as in nature, the snake always eats the rat.More

c. 1673 | England

Politically Incorrect

A satire on the king secures John Wilmot’s exile.More

Charts & Graphs

Game of Thrones

Seats of power.

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Black and white photograph of American author Edith Wharton.

Painted portrait of former American first lady Abigail Adams.

Painted portrait of second President of the United States John Adams.

Black and white photograph of American anarchist Emma Goldman.

Photograph of American writer Ralph Ellison.

Black and white photograph of French novelist, essayist, and playwright Albert Camus.

Photograph of Survivor contestant Sue Hawk.

Painted portrait of British statesman and political thinker Edmund Burke.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792

Statue of the Persian poet Ferdowsi.

Character from the television series The Wire.

Ferdowsi & Ed Burns and William Zorzi

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