Lapham's Quarterly, alongside a companion radio show and weekly blog, extends his abiding interest of recent years: the theme of history's revenge upon those who ignore it. "Everything I've written," he told Kurt Andersen in 2005, "is a chronicle of the twilight of the American idea." Using historical texts to plumb our political, cultural, and economic moment, Lapham is now aiming to add a new chapter to his career-long act as ruling class scold.

Lapham: My purpose is to foster and encourage and delight in the acquaintance with history. I'm not being polemic; I'm trying to open it out. I want to say: Behold dear reader, what a wonderful archive and treasure one can find in the history of our long journey across the frontiers of four millennia.

I went around my circle and asked, what should I be reading, where should I be looking?