Something truly wonderful on the web.
The Atlantic Monthly
Digital Archives
The Atlantic Monthly
First Issue, November 1857.
Long before Facebook clouded our brains with hot blooded reactions to whatever hot mess of an issue was the hot topic of the day, learned people exchanged information, ideas, and opinions by putting ink to paper. Beginning in the 15th century in Western Europe, wide availability of printed texts brought a new and specific class of people who were immersed in the written word. This unique new class was thought to be comprised of people who were "educated, instructed, having knowledge of letters." The class of the well educated with the ability to craft stories, essays, and other works shorter than a full novel were labeled "the literati." By the 1620s, "men and women of letters; the learned class as a whole," were considered among Europe's elite. As Western societies became ever more egalitarian, the word literati itself became a noun. In 1894, the literati came to mean anyone who "one who can read and write." And in America, since 1857, the major authors, essayists, and commentators, the American literati, filled the pages of the Atlantic Monthly.
The Atlantic Monthly is still publishing; still going strong.
What we, the 21st century equivalent of the
literati,
the
digerati, or those well versed in digital
communication, can immerse ourselves in is the old world tradition of the
printed word by spending time at the
Atlantic Monthly Archive.
This body of written works spanning and documenting the last 2 centuries
of American life is nothing short of astonishing.
Historians differentiate between
primary and secondary sources. These are the primary
sources for the study of American culture. Most of America's most
prominent essayists and commentators of the past can be read here — from
the actual manuscript as it was printed — if you so choose.
What makes this archive so fascinating is that you can search the archive. Who doesn't love Mark Twain? Heck, they even named the Windows scanner driver after him. So a search of the archive for "Mark Twain," sorted oldest to newest, returns first two essays from the 1860s, wherein Twain or his works are mentioned. The third entry is a review of a Twain work. (ed. Three things in life guaranteed: taxes, death, and critics. Some things never change.) After those three entries, we come to original printed manuscripts of original short works by Master Clemens, himself, as well as clean and easy to read digital reproductions of the same Twain works.
In the nineteenth century, and it may be self evident to say so today, race was an even more hot button issue than
it is now. The second issue of the Atlantic Monthly published an article
urging Northerners to fight to abolish the "peculiar
institution." On the 150th anniversary of its
first publication, the Atlantic published a compendium of its Civil War
essays, from
The Atlantic's second issue,
Edmund Quincy, "When will It End?" (December 1857) to Barack
Obama, "Perfecting Our Union," where "The president of the United States
reflects on what Abraham Lincoln means to him, and to America."
Along a similar historical vein, a search on "reconstruction"
returns a number of articles from the period of the 1860s to 1870s.
Perusing the titles and years written, we can begin to recognize the
intellectual and sociological antecedents of today's issues and
controversies.
DISCLAIMER: After a small number of "free articles," enough to get a feel to the value of the site, there is a free 30 day trial and a subscription cost $10.00. Of which, I receive ≤ 0%.
I don't have any interest here other than to point out the entire World Wide
Web is NOT ALL DRECK.
Just most of it.
Gerald Reiff