{"product_id":"9781480441194","title":"On the Contrary: Articles of Belief, 1946-1961","description":"\u003cb\u003eMary McCarthy, one of our most brilliant and beloved authors, serves up wit, insight, and her unique worldview in this diverse collection of essays\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn provocatively titled pieces such as “The Contagion of Ideas,” “Tyranny of the Orgasm,” and “No News, \u003ci\u003eor\u003c\/i\u003e,What Killed the Dog,” Mary McCarthy expresses her frank, unflinching, often contrarian point of view.\u003cbr\u003eNothing—and no one—is safe from her merciless writer’s eye—from politics to the ever-changing social scene to the strengths and weaknesses of her native country, where she believes “passivity and not aggressiveness is the dominant trait of the American character.” \u003ci\u003eOn the Contrary \u003c\/i\u003ealso features a cast of memorable characters. In “Naming Names,” Arthur Miller’s testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee results in an indictment for contempt of Congress. McCarthy reviews \u003ci\u003eThe Human Condition\u003c\/i\u003e, Hannah Arendt’s breakthrough book, and despairs of finding a “really American place” to take a visiting existentialist—a thinly disguised Simone de Beauvoir?  \u003cbr\u003eFrom Dickens to Gandhi to the Kinsey Reports, with pithy and wide-ranging articles on everything from fashion to fiction, the human condition, religion, and sex, \u003ci\u003eOn the Contrary \u003c\/i\u003eraises controversial questions to which, even today, there are no easy answers.\u003cbr\u003eThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary McCarthy including rare images from the author’s estate.    ","brand":"Open Road Media","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47144771289328,"sku":"9781480441194","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781480441194_p0.jpg?v=1769894053","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781480441194","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}