The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left From the 1930s to the 1980s - Hardcover

Wald, Alan M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807817163 ISBN 13: 9780807817162

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987

Synopsis

Looks at the Trotskyism movement in the U.S., explains why many radicals fell out with Stalin, and discusses the impact on New York intellectuals of the postwar period

About this title

About the Author

Alan M. Wald is the H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor of English Literature and American Culture at the University of Michigan and is the recipient of the Mary C. Turpie Prize of the American Studies Association.

Reviews

Wald's studysubtle, insightfulranks with that small cluster of fine works on 20th-century radicals and on the familiar political odyssey of that loosely knit circle, the "New York intellectuals," as they devolved from anti-Stalinist revolutionary communism to neoconservative allies of Nixon and Reagan. But Wald throws a wide net, exploring the thought of, among others, Dwight Macdonald, Harvey Swados, and Philip Rahv, as well as the writings of the Trillings, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, et al. Admittedly a Marxist, Wald is balanced, though not detached or uncritical; the pages on Podhoretz, Decter, Kristol are hardly forgiving. Essential for those interested in the cultural and scholarly activities of an important group. Milton Cantor, History Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807817163
• ISBN 13: 9780807817162
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 456