Word: babbittism
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EVERY AMERICAN, whether of the hundred per cent or the more ebullient one half of one per cent variety, complacently believes in his own capacity for withstanding any exhibition of himself "as others see" him. The Babbitt Warren is an attempted expose of the American people, American customs, and the American spirit by an Englishman, who confesses guilelessly enough that he "has not had the privilege of visiting the United States". That his indictment of us in the flesh is based on what he would admit to be hear-say evidence is perhaps the kindest thing that can be said...
Once Truth is left behind, the section on Beauty rises somewhat in tone and approaches the level on which one expects to find observations on the other fellow's habits of mind. None except the most stodgy Babbitt can do aught but cry "Hear, hear" to an accusation that "the films are the literature of America". So it must seem to one who is convinced that "America has no indigenous literature" and no writers of genius save four, E. A. Poe, Walt Whitman, Hermann Melville, and Mark Twain. The only other Americans mentioned are a few whose "goodness consists mainly...
...Mencken possesses, like most successful Americans, a flair for slapstick showmanship, it may be doubted that the American Mercury is now read for idle-minded amusement by sheepish culture-hunters less than it is read with deep attention by serious people. The half-baked phrase-snatcher on whose lips "babbitt" and "moron" are now most often heard must infuriate Mr. Mencken while he continues to get out the most provocative review...
...Elmer Gantry'", he said in reply to a question, which the mention of Babbitt naturally brought up, "is not so good a work, to my mind, as Lewis' 'Arrowsmith'. I like his 'Arrowsmith' the best of all his works. I think, though 'Babbitt' necessarily forces itself into any consideration of the novels of Sinclair Lewis...
...Neighbor Brown's nutmegs, Neighbor Smith's pie tins and Uncle Timothy's rawhide "whangs" (shoe-laces). Bronson Alcott hit the road with tinware and almanacs instead of going to Yale. Worcester Polytechnic Institute was founded by John Boynton, onetime pack-peddler. The original soap Babbitt peddled razor strops. Benedict Arnold took woolens into Canada. Cherry rum, gingerbread and candy were the stock in trade of Phineas T. Barnum before, aged 25, he bought "161-year-old" Joyce Heth, "George Washington's nurse," and turned showman. Purloining a sheaf of his father's sermons...