from theatlantic.com
At long last, exactly what you've been waiting for -- an issue of The Atlantic that manages to make you feel smarter than the writers. This month's edition features a 13-page package, complete with sidebars and old-timey photos, on "The 100 Most Influential Figures Americans of All Time."
What the hell were the editors thinking? This was their cover story? Will we never be done with Doris Kearns Goodwin? The questions abound.
Dear lord, just reading the first entry is enough to make you throw yourself into oncoming traffic. Abraham Lincoln, #1: "He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America's second founding." That's it. Is this The Atlantic or your third-grade history textbook? Hard to say. (And no, it doesn't get better. Susan B. Anthony, #38: "She was the country's most eloquent voice for women's equality under the law." Elvis Presley, #66: "The king of rock and roll. Enough said.") Even the opening line of the accompanying essay -- "It's a nebulous concept, influence: you know it when you see it, but definitions are hard to come by." -- is a cliche, an echo of an already overused line from Justice Potter Stewart, who wrote that he couldn't define pornography but that "I know it when I see it."
Magazine lists like these -- which tend to trade off depth for glibness and to make the obvious even more mind-numbing than usual -- are almost invariably bad ideas. The reason a lot of them come into existence is that, like the Time 100, they bring in ad dollars. The Atlantic stripped away much of the financial self-interest from its enterprise -- you'll find no Abe Lincoln ads in the current issue -- but still left us with the vapid, inexcusably lame remains. For the rare list that was well done, take a look at New York's Influentials issue, which manages to tell you a thing or two you didn't already know while bringing a distinct, non-hackish sensibility to the task.
A note to Atlantic editor James Bennet: If you can't do it well, don't do it at all.
