The Presidential Papers

In 1964 Midge Decter published a review in Commentary which praised Mailer's earnest observation but criticised his "intellectual brashness." Despite chastising Mailer for not being "sufficiently respectful toward the history of man's difficulties with the problems raised in [The Presidential Papers]," Decter nonetheless concluded her review by claiming "no one else is telling us more about the United States of America."^[1]

In reviewing Mailer's personal political stance of 'left-conservativism,' Cyrus Zirakzadeh concluded that The Presidential Papers's most significant insight was that the United States has remained formally democratic but nonetheless developed a 'totalitarian culture,' a discussion found in The Ninth Presidential Paper. The primary culprit for this totalitarian culture is a technology-centered 'corporate capitalism' where employees become 'sycophants' for their employers, representing a serious threat to individual freedom. What results is a managed, predictable economic order that threatens the United States' unique history of opportunity, risk and fluid social structure.^[2]