Description
Sharply observant and relentlessly candid, this collection of essays gathers Mary McCarthy’s most provocative arguments, moving with ease from politics and public life to art, religion, sex, and the shifting manners of modern society. With her signature wit and contrarian instincts, she interrogates received ideas—questioning what we call progress, how power operates, and why certain national myths endure—while also taking aim at the cultural fashions that claim to define the “human condition.” Across essays that range from literary and philosophical criticism to social commentary, McCarthy builds a gallery of memorable voices and situations, including reflections on major thinkers and controversies that shaped mid-century debate. Read for its fearless skepticism and its insistence that clarity often requires disagreement, this book captures an author at the height of her intellectual force, where no subject—and no assumption—is allowed to remain comfortable.
Available Editions
paperback
Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Published Jan 1, 2013
359 pages
ISBN: 9781480441194
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Details
First Published
1961
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for On the Contrary by Mary McCarthy.