Gore Vidal's Prose is always enjoyable, as is his "behind the scenes" perspective on matters literary and political. Unfortunately, I withhold the fifth star because I have developed a distinctly philosophical prejudice, that assertions be backed up with publicly verifiable evidence, and that these substantiated claims be linked together into arguments for specific claims. Vidal doesn't consistently do this, but, in a book of polemical essays, he shouldn't have to. They are good reading simply a...

2016 POST-ELECTION UPDATE: one can't imagine what trenchant barbs Vidal would have uttered concerning the state and level of discourse of American society right now. My personal opinion is he would have preferred permanent exile over having to reside in it. ----------------------------------------It is fair to say that I received the bulk of my education about the - ever unfolding - drama that is the United States of America from Gore Vidal. He was instrumental in shattering some of my misconcep...

It's hard to know how to categorize this collection of reprinted essays. Some are primarily literary, others historical, others political. Since Vidal is so connected to all three domains, however, and frequently inserts himself into his essays, I've chosen biography as the most appropriate rubric.Vidal is a great essayist, but reading one of them after another becomes wearing because of the repetition, particularly in the soon-to-be-even-more-dated political essays. There is less redundancy in

Timeless political commentary. He turned me on to some depression era figures that iv'e recently checked out and read biographies. What a tremendous time to live. What a tremedous life. Vidal has passion, heart, and, perhaps most importantly, the guts to actually speak his mind.

Don't always agree with him, but can't help being fascinated by Gore Vidal. Absolutely engaging and over flowing with information

A collection of essays. Interesting.

There was a time I used to spend Friday nights at restaurants, or pubs or watching a movie at the cinema. Last night was spent watching 1968 debates on America’s ABC between William Buckley and Gore Vidal – this is what I’ve become. But it was so much fun!!The Last Empire by Gore Vidal is a fascinating collection of Essays about all things USA. This is the third essayist’s work I’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks – indeed, Gore is the man who put me onto Gramsci and Michel de Montaigne (and Buc...

I can't believe its taken my entire adult life thus far to discover Gore Vidal. This book is a collection of essays that he's written during the last few years of the 20th century about the United States. It's broken up into 4 parts ranging from famous literary authors, to past presidents, and the imperialism of the U.S. Gore himself comes from a privileged background, a wealthy family including the Gores (thus his first name). He ran for office, but was mainly successful with his writing. The e...

Vidal is one of the few writers of the 20th Century who had the rare combination of wit, intellect and access to talk truth yet not get relegated to the margins by DC and the mainstream media. My only regrets in reading this amazing collection were that I wasn't old enough and aware enough to have read him while he lived, and that voices such as Vidal's are so few and far between.

Once upon a time a friend of mine included Gore Vidal among his list of closeted anarchists. I have held Vidal in high regard ever since, despite having read precious little from him.The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 is simply the one volume of his two dozen plus books of essays and non-fiction which I happened to have at hand. If you have any interest in twentieth century literature and politics you will want to read one of these collections, perhaps going whole-hog with his 1300 page United St...

GORE VIDAL is one of those writers who always challenges, excites, and stirs up my thinking. While I do not fully endorse all of the views in "THE LAST EMPIRE: ESSAYS 1992-2000", I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. He is one of the best. In terms of clarity of thought and analysis, Gore writes on subjects as varied as Sinclair Lewis, Mark Twain, JFK, FDR, Truman, Charles Lindbergh, John Updike (one of the funniest, most thoughtful and scathing essays in the book), "bad history", race relations, and...

Vidal's essay "Edmund Wilson: Nineteenth Century Man" contains what is surely the best put-down ever delivered en passant, a line which leaves me in stitches every time I think of it. Imagining it in Vidal's haughty intonation makes it even more hilarious: Anaïs Nin, muse to Henry Miller, Olive Oyl to his Popeye, returns, hustling her jams and jellies.

“Perhaps the only literary form perfected by the late-twentieth-century United Statespersons is the blurb for the dust jacket. It is for us what the haiku was for the medieval Japanese.” So said a man for whom the same could not be said. “The Last Empire” is a collection of essays written by one of America’s greatest writers, Gore Vidal (1925-2012). The subjects broached throughout the anthology range from 20th century personalities to American history, and social and political commentary. As go...

This is a collection of essays written by Gore Vidal between 1992-2000. His subjects can be other writers(past or present), usually in the form of a book review. Included are historical figures like George Washington, FDR, Kennedy and Nixon. He also writes about contemporary events like President Clinton’s impeachment woes. His writing is in depth and thoughtful. His wit is legendary and biting at times but he isn’t vulgar about it. What often is missed in Vidal’s writing though is his patrician...

Vidal displays a mastery of the English language in this collection of essays, but the substance of the words he spins are very much lacking in potency. The big problem with Vidal is that he does not attempt to engage in any serious analysis of a situation - in some cases, he just goes off on a never ending, irrelevant tangent. Take his essay “The Last Empire” for a case in point. Here, Vidal makes a claim - that America was fundamentally responsible for starting the Cold War because it changed

The Last Empire is a collection of Gore Vidal's essays from 1992 through 2006. Vidal is a man of letters, best known for his acidic wit and his disdain for the establishment positions of American superiority and the assumption that American culture was better than that of the rest of the world. He came from an influential family, growing up in Washington, D.C. and going to the best schools. His family were in politics and business. His father was the founder of the TWA airline, and his mother wa...

This collection of essays on literary, biographical, and historical subjects runs the gamut between the brilliant (his takedown of John Updike) and the pedestrian (some of his political pieces). In general, the period covered is the Clinton Presidency, though there are echoes going all the way back to Herbert Hoover and FDR.Gore Vidal is a unique figure in our recent history: Because of his family connections, he has met with (and even befriended) many of the major figures of the Twentieth Centu...

Entertaining romp through letters, politics and the pop cultureThere is no question that Vidal likes to take people apart, especially political people. He likes to introduce the obtuse and stuffy to themselves, as it were, and to laugh at the pretentious. His favorite targets are on the Right, which is good, and his second favorite targets are on the Left, which is also good. He is, strange to say, and perhaps unbeknownst to himself, as American as pizza pie and Cabernet Sauvignon, matzo balls a...

American Supreme . . . is an album by the band Suicide.

"Perhaps the only literary form perfect by late-twentieth-century United Statespersons is the blurb for the dust jacket. It is for us what the haiku was the medieval Japanese."So fun to see Gore get spicy about Beltway orthodoxy, he would've loved being a hot take crafter on Weird Twitter. Presciently describes the US as having "two right wings" and also repeatedly uses phrases that could be Rage Against the Machine songs like "The United States of Amnesia." Like Joan Didion, he casually name-dr...