{"product_id":"the-last-empire-essays-19922000-9780385501545","title":"The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000","description":"\u003cp\u003eA new collection of provocative  witty and eloquent essays by Gore Vidal  the greatest living American man of letters and one of the finest essayists of the twentieth (and twenty-first) century.  The Last Empireis Gore Vidals ninth collection of essays in the course of his distinguished literary career. As in the previous volumes  which include the 1993 National Book Award-winning United States: Essays 1952-1992  Vidal displays unparalleled range and inimitable style as he deals with matters literary  historical  personal  and political. There are warm (and shrewd) appreciations of Edmund Wilson  Dawn Powell  Sinclair Lewis  and Mark Twain; polemical observations on the major figures and (as he sees it) deplorable developments in American politics  Bill Clinton  FDR  JFK  his cousin Al Gore  the CIA and the American empire  the global reach of media conglomerates  and the United States disdain for the UN  as well as fascinating autobiographical vignettes. Pieces that have already generated shock waves include his essay in dispraise of the works of John Updike  his controversial defense of Charles Lindbergh  and his attack on the national security state that first appeared in Vanity Fair. Nobody makes the fur fly in a more elegant and civilized fashion than Gore Vidal. He is our indispensable man.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45789749674037,"sku":"ByrdShop_0385501544","price":24.62,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780385501545.jpg?v=1784696370","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-last-empire-essays-19922000-9780385501545","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}