Liberalism in America; its Origin, its Temporary Collapse, its Future

by Harold Edmund Stearns

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Harold Edmund Stearns was known as a prolific critic, journalist, editor and essayist during the 1920's and 1930's. He was a member of the American expatriate group in Paris along with other notable exiles such as Ernest Hemingway, Elliot Paul, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Glenway Wescott, John Dos Passos and Robert Coates. It was also Stearns who encouraged New York publisher Horace Liveright to publish Hemingway's In Our Time. For many chroniclers of the era, Stearns was the quintessential expatriate - a symbol of the 'exile' period in American literature.

However, Stearns was also referred to by his intimates as a "picturesque ruin" for what he had left behind him in America was "the broken promise of a brilliant career—essays in The New Republic, editorship of The Dial, and his famous iconoclastic symposium 'Civilization in the United States'."
Eventually, Stearns fell victim to alcohol and gambling whilst attempting to forge a career in Paris. His perpetual lack of funds and habit of borrowing money from friends made him quite infamous; so much so, that Ernest Hemingway used him as a model for the indigent Harvey Stone in his novel The Sun Also Rises.

In 1932 he returned to New York, his passage paid for by charity and friends. He went on to publish two reappraisals of the United States, Rediscovering America (1934) and America, a Reappraisal (1937), a complete volte-face from his earlier symposium.