Walter Karp

Walter Karp (1934-1989) was an American journalist, writer and historian. For 11 years, until his sudden death after surgery on July 19, 1989, he worked as a contributing editor for "Harper's magazine", edited by his friend Lewis H. Lapham which in 2003 reissued some of his political books. He was also a frequent contributor to American Heritage and Horizon.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Karp attended Columbia College, where he studied anthropology and graduated as the valedictorian of the class of 1955. He began his career as a popular science writer, penning a book on Charles Darwin for young adults. He began writing about politics in response to the Vietnam War, which he opposed. In 1969, he started a biweekly magazine called The Public Life with his friend and fellow political writer H. R. Shapiro, which won praise from the likes of W. H. Auden.

Karp's books emphasize the close relationship between domestic and international politics and the shallowness of the modern American two-party system. He emphasized power and militarism rather than money as a corrupting influence on politics. He cited Thomas Jefferson and Hannah Arendt as the two greatest influences on his thinking. He was inspired by the United States' Founding Fathers both politically and in his literary style, which is highly reminiscent of late 18th century prose.

Writings

Karp's 1979 book "The Politics of War" is a history of how the US got into the Spanish-American War and the First World War, and of the emergence of the US as a world power. Lapham has compared it to the works of Henry Adams and underlines its continuing relevance, writing in 2003 that "Karp offers a clearer understanding of our current political circumstance than can be found in any two or twenty of the volumes published over the last ten years by the herd of Washington journalists grazing on the White House lawn."

Karp argued that the United States was not forced into the Spanish-American War by a war-crazed public or sensationalist newspaper reports, as most historians contend, but by an ambitious pair of parties who longed to make the country "safe for oligarchy" again, after the Populist movement of the 1890s had threatened the stability of the two-party system. Despite the success of the war, however, the Populist movement soon gave way to a Progressive movement within the Republican Party led by the insurgent Senator Robert La Follette. This culminated in the election of 1912, when more than 70 percent of the voters cast their ballots for progressive (or allegedly progressive) candidates, leaving incumbent William Howard Taft a distant third in the race. At this point, Karp writes, "The privileged interests... seemed about to receive their death blow. Government of, by, and for the people was about to be restored to the American Republic."

The man elected to the presidency in 1912, however, was Woodrow Wilson, who had very different plans for the country. Karp points out that Wilson had originally held very conservative views, including a firm belief in laissez-faire capitalism, and had conveniently altered his views upon deciding to seek office. Karp characterizes Wilson as "a man driven by vaunting ambition" who believed firmly in his own destiny. He dreamed of negotiating a treaty between the warring powers of Europe, but realized early on that he would have to take America into the war in order to do it. Like other historians, Karp points out the hypocrisy of Wilson's favorable attitude toward the Allies and his harsh attitude toward the Germans, despite the fact that both had violated international law. Unlike many other historians, Karp argues that Wilson deliberately dragged the U.S. into the war to suit his ambitions.

Karp is also particularly critical of Wilson's domestic repression of civil liberties against critics of the war. Comparing the wartime behavior of Lincoln, whom he admired, to Wilson's, he wrote: "Americans under Lincoln enjoyed every liberty that could possibly be spared; in a war safely fought 3,000 miles from our own shores, Americans under Wilson lost every liberty they could possibly be deprived of." The wartime suppression of liberty, he wrote, "struck the American Republic a blow from which it has never recovered."

Karp's 1988 book "Liberty Under Siege" was equally controversial. Following the line of several articles he had penned for Harper's, he argued that the two parties had colluded to undermine the presidency of Jimmy Carter, a "feeble democrat," and replace him with Ronald Reagan, whom he deemed "a liar and a tyrant." Despite his harsh assessment of the Reagan years, Karp ended the book by reiterating his faith in Jeffersonian democracy.

In a classic 1979 article for Harper's, "The Two Americas," Karp defined his attitude toward democracy and patriotism. Citing the Pledge of Allegiance, he contended that America is in fact two countries, a republic and a nation. The republic, he argued, "exists for its own sake," while the nation exists only in relation to other nations - and, therefore, is most alive when at war. Karp was fond of quoting Lincoln's praise of Henry Clay as a man who "loved his country, partly because it was his own country, but mostly because it was a free country."

A highly idiosyncratic writer, he is now remembered by libertarians across the political spectrum, both left and right.

Quotes

“The left and right wings of the party establishment--two great pinions of an ancient bird of prey.” (Liberty under Siege, p.100)

“The public school system: ‘Usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek subservience to authority.’”

“The most esteemed journalists are precisely the most servile. For it is by making themselves useful to the powerful that they gain access to the ‘best’ sources.”(Harper's Magazine, July 1989)

"Professors of American history erect Gothic cathedrals of erudition on political axioms acquired from their fifth-grade "social studies" readers" (Buried Alive, p.63)(Harper's Magazine, May 1980)

"In one form or another, my enemies believe that the few should rule the many and that the many should shut their traps." (American Heritage Interview)

Works

Politics

*cite book |author=Karp, Walter |title=The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American Republic 1890-1920 |publisher=Moyer Bell Ltd |location=Mt. Kisco, NY |year=2003 |pages= |isbn=1-879957-55-8 |oclc= |doi= [http://walterkarp.tripod.com/id47.html Lewis Lapham's introduction to the 2003 reissue of The Politics of War] [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Walter_Karp/Politics_of_War.html Excerpts]

*cite book |author=Karp, Walter |title=Indispensable Enemies: The Politics of Misrule in America |publisher=Franklin Square Press |location=New York |year=1993 |pages= |isbn=1-879957-13-2 |oclc= |doi= [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Walter_Karp/Indispensable%20Enemies.html Excerpts]

*cite book |author=Karp, Walter |title=Liberty Under Siege: American Politics 1976-1988 |publisher=Franklin Square Press |location=New York |year=1993 |pages= |isbn=1-879957-11-6 |oclc= |doi= [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Walter_Karp/Liberty_Under_Siege.html Excerpts]

*cite book |author=Karp, Walter |title=Buried Alive: Essays on Our Endangered Republic |publisher=Franklin Square Press |location=New York |year=2003 |pages= |isbn=1879957043 |oclc= |doi= [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Democracy_America/Buried_Alive_WKarp.html Excerpts]

*cite book |author=Karp, Walter and Sidney Zion |title=Betrayal: The Two Parties Against the People |publisher=Argonaut Press |location=New York |year=1995 |pages= |isbn=1882206037|oclc= |doi=

Other

*cite book |author=Karp, Walter |title=The Smithsonian Institution: An Establishment for the Increase & Diffusion of Knowledge Among Men |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |location=New York |year=1965|pages= |isbn=|oclc= |doi=
*cite book |author=Karp, Walter |title=Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |year=1968|pages= |isbn=|oclc= |doi=
*cite book |author=Karp, Walter |title=I Remember Wounded Knee Between the Wars |publisher=American Heritage |location=New York |year=1973|pages= |isbn=|oclc= |doi=
*cite book |author=Karp, Walter |title=The American Land As It Was |publisher=American Heritage |location=New York |year=1969|pages= |isbn=|oclc= |doi=

External links

* [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1989/7/1989_7_158.shtml Interview of Karp by his daughter Jane Karp published in American Heritage ]
* [http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/karp_toc.htm Issue 13 (May 3, 1996) of The Last Ditch magazine, devoted to Walter Karp]
* [http://www.antiwar.com/stromberg/pf/p-s013100.html Walter Karp (1934-1989): War Critic and Republican Theorist, by Joseph Stromberg]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050320172755/http://www.karmalised.com/archives/000274.html Photo of Karp and brief description]
* [http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/karp_quotes.htm Quotes from Karp]
* [http://www.onpower.org/quotes/k.html Quotes from Karp]
* [http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/johnny.html Why Johnny Can't Think: The Politics of Bad Schooling, Harper's Magazine, June 1985 ]
* [http://www.harpers.org/subjects/WalterKarp/WriterOf/Article List of Harper's Magazine Articles by Karp]
* [http://harpers.org/subjects/WalterKarp/WriterOf/Letter List of Harper's Magazine Letters by Karp]
* [http://harpers.org/subjects/WalterKarp/WriterOf/Review List of Harper's Magazine Reviews by Karp]
* [http://harpers.org/archive/1989/10/0059049 Obituary in Harper's Magazine by Lewis Lapham]
* [http://harpers.org/archive/2003/08/page/0011 Yankee Doodle Dandy by Lewis Lapham] Essay on the relevance of Karp's The Politics of War to the American war in Iraq
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE2DE1439F933A15754C0A96F948260 New York Times Obituary]