The Way We Live Now
Diary: quick takes from my desk
The title The Way We Live Now comes from a novel by the 19th century author Anthony Trollope. It was published 150 years ago, inspired, says a reviewer, “by the author's fury at the corrupt state of England.” How appropriate today!1
How to live? How to love? These are age-old questions about the good life, and The Way We Live Now revolves around them. I hope that in talking about what’s happening today, we can figure out a better way forward.
This newsletter is a continuation and extension of the letter I used to send from Berkshire Publishing Group: my company’s tagline is “Knowledge for our common future,” but I often think of what I do as “thinking globally, acting locally.”
What I offer here one woman’s take on a host of global and national issues, big-picture stuff that I try to bring back to the practicalities of how we live. This letter isn’t just my ideas. My life’s work involves learning from thousands of experts, and I’ll share their ideas and recommendations with you.
Trollope’s The Way We Live Now
Robert McCrum’s review in the Guardian explains how the book was “dismissed by critics at the time,” but affirms that The Way We Live Now is recognised as Trollope's masterpiece.
It is not my favorite of Trollope’s novels. There’s much more—and many more! The novels are expansive, touching all aspects of the human experience, and he’s particularly good on politics and class, and his women are generally wonderful. Miss Mackenzie is the story of a 35-year-old spinster who inherits a small fortune and decides to enjoy life rather than marry.
Why subscribe?
I’m an American who spent years abroad and who is far from convinced that we have all the answers. I’m middle of the road politically, but we we face multiple crises now and it’s clear to me that we should be pledging our “lives, liberty, and sacred honor” to facing them.
Facing the problems but looking beyond them to solutions. I have been asking questions and challenging norms since I was 11 or 12. This led to my running away from home in the Silicon (Santa Clara) Valley at 14, to a hippy commune in southern Oregon. I guess I’ve never stopped trying to find a better way to live.
Paid subscribers will have access to a variety of add-ons, but I’m happy to have you here for the free version, too - we’re in this together, after all.
In the early 2000s, the New York Times ran a regular feature with the same title, but it’s been long discontinued and I haven’t been able to find the piece that introduced and explained the choice to use that title. Was it connected with 9/11 and the aftermath?
