The hero in America; a chronicle of hero-worship
"The Hero in America, by Dixon Wecter, appeared in 1941, on the eve of our entry into World War II, but now, three decades later, no book could be more relevant--more disturbingly relevant--to our national condition. In 1941, the "heroes" Mussolini and Hitler (along with their brother-hero Stalin, who happened to wind up on our side) dominated Europe and, as though with the morning sun of a new world-day at the back, cast their enormous shadows across the Atlantic. Could we produce a brand of heroism to stand against the apparently invincible, and inevitable European product? So the "Chronicle of Hero-Worship."' as it is called in the subtitle, assessed the heroes of the American past in a context that gave the subject more than academic interest. It was, we may say without much exaggeration, a subject involving life and death. And now, in a time that, among other things, is an age of anti-heroism, as America faces a crisis which is deeper, more inward, and for which no happy issue is guaranteed, we may again say, with even less exaggeration, that this book treats a subject involving the life and death of our society."--The Introduction by Robert Penn Warren
Print Book, English, [1972, ©1941]
Scribner, New York, [1972, ©1941]