Abstract
In the course of the last century, was there a defining moment of patriotic expression and reflection? I move the nomination of 1941. The Four Freedoms were enunciated on January 6 of that year, and the next month an influential media magnate published ‘‘The American Century.’’ As a characteristic of the American mind, the editorial that Henry R. Luce published in the February 17 issue ofLifeis the subject of this essay. But in envisioning the hegemony of the United States, Luce was not acting in a vacuum. Insisting that the United States would soon be fighting in World