Notes on Democracy

2022 Reprint of the 1926 First Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Notes on Democracy is a harsh critique of democracy. The book places political leaders into two categories: the demagogue, who "preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots" and the pandering politician, "who listens to what these idiots have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself." Mencken depicts politicians as "men who have sold their honor for their jobs." Writing for The Saturday Review of Literature Walter Lippmann described the book as a "tremendous polemic" which "destroy[s] by rendering it ridiculous and unfashionable, the democratic tradition of the American pioneers."

Mencken (1880-1956) was America's greatest journalist. With his cynical humor, he skewered big government, Puritanism, and sanctimony. Mencken was politically incorrect before the phrase was coined. With his misanthropic snobbery, he offends across the political spectrum. Libertarians consider him a patron saint. His works are still read today, and he is the subject of several biographies.