About Benj Demott

Benjamin DeMott began writing about American culture in the 50s and he was a quickening agent in it for 50 years until his death in 2005. DeMott wrote cultural criticism and social commentary as well as two novels and numberless book reviews. But he wasn’t simply a writer. He was widely known as an incomparable … Read more

Barack Obama gave the following speech last month at the Take Back America Conference. Thank you. Thank you Roger Hickey and Bob Borosage for bringing us all together today and thank you for your leadership in the cause of a more progressive America. My friends, we meet here today at a time where we find … Read more

Many of us watched with horror the national spectacle that unfolded to commemorate the death of 92-year-old Rosa Parks on October 24, 2005. The first woman to lie in state at the Nation’s capital (and the 31st person overall since 1852), Parks who died in Detroit had first been flown to Montgomery for a service … Read more

Now that Cindy Sheehan has taken up attacking all who disagree with her, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D.-N.Y.), Democratic commentators are singing a different tune. Where once Sheehan was a sympathetic mother rightly demanding a meeting with President Bush—presumably in order to call him a “spewer of filth” to his face—now she is guilty … Read more

Last week Barack Obama spoke on Rosa Parks’ legacy in his weekly “podcast.” While Obama’s talk was relatively informal, his comments are still worth considering. Here’s a transcript of his remarks… Two nights ago I received the news of the loss of a genuine American hero. As many of you now know, Rosa Parks died … Read more

A 70’s piece on The Uses of James Baldwin by Benjamin DeMott takes on a new resonance after a viewing of No Direction Home. Baldwin figures in the Dylan documentary because he was a presence in Greenwich Village during the 50s and 60s, but these two bohemian culture heroes shared more than a social context … Read more

  Start with Katha Pollitt. In the April 18 issue of The Nation, she unsurprisingly holds forth (unsurprisingly) on the controversy surrounding Theresa Schindler Schiavo. She comes down, of course, on the side of pulling the tube (or as she nicely says, “Schiavo’s feeding tube was withdrawn”). There’s no real argument offered, but she makes … Read more