Written as a cultural weapon and a call to arms, Howl touched a raw nerve in Cold War America and has been controversial from the day it was first read aloud nearly fifty years ago. This first full critical and historical study of Howl brilliantly elucidates the nexus of politics and literature in which it was written and gives striking new portraits of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs. Drawing from newly released psychiatric reports on Ginsberg, from interviews with his psychiatrist, Dr. Philip Hicks, and from the poet's journals, American Scream shows how Howl brought Ginsberg and the world out of the closet of a repressive society. It also gives the first full accounting of the literary figures—Eliot, Rimbaud, and Whitman—who influenced Howl, definitively placing it in the tradition of twentieth-century American poetry for the first time. As he follows the genesis and the evolution of Howl, Jonah Raskin constructs a vivid picture of a poet and an era. He illuminates the development of Beat poetry in New York and San Francisco in the 1950s--focusing on historic occasions such as the first reading of Howl at Six Gallery in San Francisco in 1955 and the obscenity trial over the poem's publication. He looks closely at Ginsberg's life, including his relationships with his parents, friends, and mentors, while he was writing the poem and uses this material to illuminate the themes of madness, nakedness, and secrecy that pervade Howl. A captivating look at the cultural climate of the Cold War and at a great American poet, American Scream finally tells the full story of Howl—a rousing manifesto for a generation and a classic of twentieth-century literature.

He was a radical stand up who dared to question the values of small town America and the evils of American foreign policy. Ruthlessly honest, a voice of reason in what he saw as an insane world, Hicks refused to compromise in spite of the censorship he faced for most of his career. His entire act was once banned from The Late Show with David Letterman because he made fun of pro-lifers and the Pope. In American Scream Cynthia True gets under the skin of Hicks, the heavy-drinking, chain-smoking, drug-taking philosopher who was also gentle and kind, a good friend and a comic genius who packed enough adventure into his three decades to last three lifetimes. Hicks died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 but his comedy is more relevant today than ever. This vivid, funny, insightful book shows why. 'Conscientious, perceptive and affectionate . . . [True] understands her subject perfectly' Independent 'Intelligent and tightly researched' Guardian

What is America? For renowned Croatian poet Dubravka Oraic Tolic, it is ""what is born from our dreams without our knowing."" As Columbus' dream of reaching India was interrupted by the discovery of a new land, we too discover unexpected lands in pursuit of our dreams. These new lands are the reality of our hopeful voyages. ""American Scream"" explores the tension between a nation's dream of freedom and the outworking of that dream. ""Palindrome Apocalypse"" explores the history of the twentieth century, beginning with the October Revolution of 1917 and ending with the bombing of Zagreb in 1991-a shadow of apocalypse. Here the exceptional poem is presented side-by-side with the Croatian so the reader can appreciate the amazing palindromic verse.

Written as a cultural weapon and call to arms, 'Howl' touched a nerve in Cold War America and has been controversial from the day it was first read aloud. This is a critical and historical study of the work, elucidating the nexus of politics and literature in which it was written.

“For too long we have been encouraged to see culture as an affair of intellect, and reading as a solitary exercise. But the truth is different: literature and art are pathways of feeling, and our encounter with them is social, inscribing us in a larger community.... Through art we discover that we are not alone.” So writes the esteemed Brown University professor Arnold Weinstein in this brilliant, radical exploration of Western literature. In the tradition of Harold Bloom and Jacques Barzun, Weinstein guides us through great works of art, to reveal how literature constitutes nothing less than a feast for the heart. Our encounter with literature and art can be a unique form of human connection, an entry into the storehouse of feeling. Writing about works by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Munch, Proust, O’Neill, Burroughs, DeLillo, Tony Kushner, Toni Morrison, and others, Weinstein explores how writers and artists give us a vision of what human life is really all about. Reading is an affair of the heart as well as of the mind, deepening our sense of the fundamental forces and emotions that govern our lives, including fear, pain, illness, loss, depression, death, and love. Provocative, beautifully written, essential, A Scream Goes Through the House traces the human cry that echoes in literature through the ages, demonstrating how intense feelings are heard and shared. With intellectual insight and emotional acumen, Weinstein reveals how the scream that resounds through the house of literature, history, the body, and the family shows us who we really are and joins us together in a vast and timeless community.

Populists on both sides of the political aisle routinely announce that the American Dream is dead. According to them, the game has been rigged by elites, workers can’t get ahead, wages have been stagnant for decades, and the middle class is dying. Michael R. Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, disputes this rhetoric as wrong and dangerous. In this succinctly argued volume, he shows that, on measures of economic opportunity and quality of life, there has never been a better time to be alive in America. He backs his argument with overwhelming—and underreported—data to show how the facts favor realistic optimism. He warns, however, that the false prophets of populism pose a serious danger to our current and future prosperity. Their policies would leave workers worse off. And their erroneous claim that the American Dream is dead could discourage people from taking advantage of real opportunities to better their lives. If enough people start to believe the Dream is dead, they could, in effect, kill it. To prevent this self-fulfilling prophecy, Strain’s book is urgent reading for anyone feeling the pull of the populists. E. J. Dionne and Henry Olsen provide spirited responses to Strain’s argument.

AMERICAN SCREAM A novel of hope and possibilities There are some lucky ones who remember fondly the urban community they initially grew up in where immigrants came to this country to find a place for themselves. Their first taste of the American Dream was to place their feet upon American soil and to find a place to live in a community that welcomed them in as fellow immigrants searching for the opportunities and freedoms that America afforded. Then, all of the sudden too many jobs left the country and many of the new generation lost their homes. Somehow the American Dream had turned into the American Scream and the land of opportunity became the land of despair. There is no land of opportunity if there are no opportunities. It had become not a government for the people but a government that did to the people. This book depicts one possibility of how we can still reverse an oncoming tsunami of devastation. Join the journey to the fictional East Side neighborhood of Mount Joy where the residents live and work together in a self sustainable environment where the American Dream is not focused on monetary riches but the riches of finding one's internal self in an atmosphere of equal support and encouragement.