03.21
“We Went to War Just to Boost the Male Ego.” The Times (London), 29 April, 20 (subscription required). Essay of approximately 1500 words in which Mailer argues that Pres. Bush went to war because “we very much needed a war” to offset the sinking economy, the loss of face resulting from scandals in the Catholic Church, the greed of U.S. corporations, and behind all these was the need to bolster the sagging machismo of white American males. An expanded version of this essay appeared in the New York Review of Books, 7 July 2003, under the title, “The White Man Unburdened.” Rpt: 13.1.
