His characters burn with longing for an idealized future composed
of equal parts material success and individual freedom, but
repeatedly they fall back to earth, pulled by the tendrils of
family and the insatiability of desire. Drawing on thinkers from
Emerson to Nietzsche, O'Neill viewed this endlessly frustrated
desire as the problematic core of American democracy,
simultaneously driving and undermining American ideals of progress,
success, and individual freedom. Melding a penetrating assessment
of O'Neill's works and thought with a sensitive recreation
of his life, Eugene O'Neill's America offers a striking new
view of America's greatest playwright - and a new picture of
American democracy itself.
"This will be an essential book for all who seek to know the political dimensions of O'Neill's work and view of the world." - Stephen A. Black, author of Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and Tragedy "Sixty years ago Eric Bentley wrote a seminal book on 'the playwright as thinker.' John Patrick Diggins discusses Eugene O'Neill in precisely this light - as a dramatist who reflected deeply on American history in terms of the most serious ethical and political concerns. O'Neill is usually seen today as a haunted figure best remembered for his late, great autobiographical plays, but Diggins reminds us of other profound dimensions of his work, his lifelong obsession with national as well as personal origins." - Morris Dickstein, author of Gates of Eden and A Mirror in the Roadway"
John Patrick Diggins is Distinguished Professor in the PhD Program at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Meaning of History.
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