Cultural Writing. There's no better time than an election year to revisit Philip Wylie's GENERATION OF VIPERS, perhaps the most vitriolic attack ever launched on the American way of living. A classic for "Americans who love liberty, detest smugness and are anxious about the prospects for our nation" (from the introduction), Wylie goes after virtually everyone in this book--from politicians to professors to businessmen to Mom to sexual mores to religion--in a style that is controversial, biting, and filled with common sense.