On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

by H.L. Mencken

With a style that combined biting sarcasm with the "language of the free lunch counter," Henry Louis Mencken shook politics and politicians for nearly half a century. Now, fifty years after Mencken’s death, the Johns Hopkins University Press announces The Buncombe Collection , newly packaged editions of nine Mencken Happy Days , Heathen Days , Newspaper Day s, Prejudices , Treatise on the Gods , On Politics , Thirty-Five Years of Newspaper Work , Minority Report , and A Second Mencken Chrestomathy . With a style that combined biting sarcasm with the "language of the free lunch counter," Henry Louis Mencken shook politics and politicians for nearly half a century. Now, fifty years after Mencken’s death, the Johns Hopkins University Press announces The Buncombe Collection , newly packaged editions of nine Mencken Happy Days , Heathen Days , Newspaper Day s, Prejudices , Treatise on the Gods , On Politics , Thirty-Five Years of Newspaper Work , Minority Report , and A Second Mencken Chrestomathy . These seventy political pieces from the 1920s and 1930s are drawn from Mencken's famous Monday columns in the Baltimore Evening Sun .

Genres: Politics, History

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Henry Louis "H.L." Mencken became one of the most influential and prolific journalists in America in the 1920s and '30s, writing about all the shams and con artists in the world. He attacked chiropractors and the Ku Klux Klan, politicians and other journalists. Most of all, he attacked Puritan morality. He called Puritanism, "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."

At the height of his career, he edited and wrote for The American Mercury magazine and the Baltimore Sun newspaper, wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column for the Chicago Tribune, and published two or three books every year. His masterpiece was one of the few books he wrote about something he loved, a book called The American Language (1919), a history and collection of American vernacular speech. It included a translation of the Declaration of Independence into American English that began, "When things get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody."

When asked what he would like for an epitaph, Mencken wrote, "If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl."

(from American Public Media)

Reviews

[Zachary Barber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proof that, even in the age of trump, there is nothing new under the sun.

[William Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious as always. This collection of newspaper columns from the 1920s and 1930s is one acidic delight after another. Nothing much has changed except that we have no one with Mencken’s mix of high and low sardonic and absurdist wit.

[Roman Di · Rating 5 out of 5]

H.L. Mencken had to have been possessed with a sense of political prophecy like few others. His acerbic style and pronounced adversarial role glaring at the issues of his time appear to be most appropriate even now. The one glaring example from his writings in the 1920's suggests strongly his ability to look into the future, providing us this:

"On some great and glorious day, the plain folk of the land will reach their heart's desires and,
at long last, the White House will be adorned with a downright moron!" Does this suggest,
given our present circumstance that Mr. Mencken was correct? I think so. A Carnival of
Buncombe belongs in everyone political library. Send one to your Congressman … it is
urgently needed!!

[John Engelman · Rating 3 out of 5]

H.L. Mencken On Politics: a Carnival of Buncombe is an anthology of Mencken’s essay on political issues. I had to look up the definition of buncombe. It means “insincere of foolish talk, nonsense.” That is an honest admission by Mencken of his writings.

In 1927 Walter Lippmann described Mencken’s writings as “the most powerful personal influence on this whole generation of educated people.”

Lippmann was too generous and too modest. Lippmann’s writings had the most powerful personal influence on educated people during the 1920’s. and as long as he lived. The influence of Mencken’s writings was limited to perpetual college sophomores, who like Mencken, never matured.

Mencken’s sense of humor consisted of laughing at people who were less intelligent than he was and encouraging his readers to laugh with him. During the 1920’s most of the targets of Mencken’s humor were rich, powerful, and full of their own importance, so decent people could laugh too.

During the Great Depression Mencken aimed his wit at unemployed factory workers, farmers trying desperately to keep farms that had been in their families for generations, and humanitarians who wanted the government to help the first two groups. Mencken’s laughter continued at the usual volume, but it was no longer possible for decent people to laugh with him.

For Mencken the most important issue during the 1920’s and early 1930’s was prohibition. He continued to drink heavily, but he wanted to do it legally. He was aware of the rise in unemployment during the 1930’s. He attributed the increase to an increase in laziness. Presumably there had been an epidemic of that following the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

I must confess that I found the writing of Mencken appealing during the early 1970’s. His cynicism matched mine at the time. For me the most important issue back then was the War in Vietnam. I could not understand why white blue collar workers were leaving the Democratic Party and voting Republican. Since then, I have developed a sympathetic understanding of the white working class exodus, but I continue to vote Democrat.

One will read Mencken in vain for any brilliant insights or evidence of humanity. I occasionally appreciate him as a writer. I do not respect him as a thinker. I do not like him as a person.

[Anton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of U.S. political satire articles from the 1920s and 1930s by Henry Louis Mencken. It’s incredible how relevant his century-old commentary remains today. Mencken calls out politicians for avoiding real issues, prioritizing re-election over integrity, dodging direct answers, spinning media narratives, and indulging in shameless self-promotion. The bag of tricks is eerily familiar—echoing the populist, unapologetic politics of denial and falsehoods we see now.

The book is full of quotes brimming with sarcasm and wit. I found it difficult to read for long stretches, but since it’s made up of 70 short columns, each roughly five pages long, it worked well as a casual, pick-up read.

“…going into politics is as fatal to a gentleman as going into a bordello is fatal to a virgin.”

[Jeffrey Falk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The research continues ....

This collection of essays from Harding to "Roosevelt Minor" is heavily oriented toward presidential electoral politics. It is fascinating anyway (and not so dated) due to the captivating, mellifluous opprobrium and delightful humor of Mencken's prose. Some Mencken fans (and others) may be dismayed by some of his voting choices (and his constant misunderstanding/misuse of the concept selfishness). While this anthology could have used some end notes (even in 1956, when it was first published shortly after Mencken's death), editor Malcolm Moos did a decent job of contextualizing the pieces in section introductions and providing a "glossary" (list of historical personages).

Next: "Treatise on the Gods" (Mencken's personal favorite) ....

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 2016 presidential election campaign has already begun, so let’s take a look at a book about elections of the past, shall we? H.L. Mencken (1880-1948) was a newspaperman, most famously on the Baltimore, Maryland Sun. For a number of years, he had a weekly opinion column published on Mondays. These 69 essays are focused primarily on presidential politics between 1920 and 1936.

That covers Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and the first two elections of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Mr. Mencken skewers them all, as well as other politicians and public figures of the time. He was famous for his barbs, and is eminently quotable. For example “…going into politics is as fatal to a gentleman as going into a bordello is fatal to a virgin.”

It’s interesting to see what has changed about politics since the first half of the Twentieth Century, and what has remained the same. It’s still amusing to watch a party’s primary candidates tear each other to shreds, then have to work together as best buddies once the party has an official nominee. On the other hand, the Republican and Democratic parties of the time are barely recognizable as the organizations they are now. (One can see the beginnings of the policy flips that lost the Dems the KKK vote.)

Mr. Mencken has a wide vocabulary and many useful words that may come in handy for your own writing. But be warned that he also uses some ethnic slurs that were common at the time. His views are progressive on some subjects, but highly reactionary on others, and he’s not afraid to speak his mind. Mr. Mencken is particularly hard on Methodists and Baptists, who he feels bullied the country into Prohibition (which Mencken was against.)

H.L. Mencken did support some politicians on an individual basis, but was quick to edit his own memory of their performance when they disappointed him. One also has to remember that he had a reputation as a curmudgeon to uphold.

To cover the major players, Warren G. Harding was a compromise candidate chosen for not having particularly strong views on anything; Calvin Coolidge was even less impressive (unless one takes the Jeffersonian dictum that “the government is best that governs least” in which case he is one of the greatest presidents.) Herbert Hoover was sold to America as exactly the kind of person who could fix a financial crisis should one pop up–he wasn’t. And FDR would have been better suited to the job of king.

Interesting historical perspective: Mr. Mencken writes several times about the perception that Hoover was too close to the British, something that didn’t get any play in the little I heard about him in school.

This collection was put together in the 1950s with the aid of political history scholar Malcolm Moos; it already needed an extensive “glossary” of names mentioned in the columns to remind people of who they’d been. Even with the glossary and index, some knowledge of early 20th Century American politics is vital to the reader getting anything but a few chuckles out of the text. My copy is in bad shape, as you can see, but the book has been reprinted a few times, so check your library or used book store.

Recommended to students of American politics in the first half of the 20th Century.

[Zeno Izen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of writings by HL Mencken. Most of the items in this book are related to US electoral politics, mentioning names and events that might be unfamiliar to contemporary readers. However, Mencken is always amusing, even when the subject matter is no longer relevant.

[Varmint · Rating 4 out of 5]

mencken running amok through the political herds.