The New York Intellectuals, Thirtieth Anniversary Edition : The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left From the 1930s to the 1980s

For a generation, Alan M. Wald's__The New York Intellectuals__has stood as the authoritative account of an often misunderstood chapter in the history of a celebrated tradition among literary radicals in the United States. His passionate investigation of over half a century of dissident Marxist thought, Jewish internationalism, fervent political activism, and the complex art of the literary imagination is enriched by more than one hundred personal interviews, unparalleled primary research, and critical interpretations of novels and short stories depicting the inner lives of committed writers and thinkers. Wald's commanding biographical portraits of rebel outsiders who mostly became insiders retains its resonance today and includes commentary on Max Eastman, Elliot Cohen, Lionel Trilling, Sidney Hook, Tess Slesinger, Philip Rahv, Mary McCarthy, James T. Farrell, Irving Kristol, Irving Howe, Hannah Arendt, and more. With a new preface by the author that tracks the rebounding influence of these intellectuals in the era of Occupy and Bernie Sanders, this anniversary edition shows that the trajectory and ideological ordeals of the New York intellectual Left still matters today. Wald Wirtes Of The Group's Efforts In The 1930s To Build A Marxist Alternative To The Official Communist Movement And The Aftermath Of That In The Post War Intellectual World. Introduction: Political Amnesia -- Origins Of The Anti-stalinist Left -- Jewish Internationalists -- The Non-jewish Jews -- Portrait: Elliot Cohen -- Portrait: Lionel Trilling -- Portrait: Herbert Solow -- From Cultural Pluralism To Revolutionary Internationalism -- Dissident Communists -- The Menorah Group Moves Left -- New Allies: Sidney Hook, James Rorty, Charles Rumford Walker -- The National Committee For The Defense Of Political Prisoners (ncdpp) And The League Of Professionals -- The Intellectual Disease -- Radical Modernists -- In Defense Of Literature -- Other Dissident Writers And Critics On The Left: James T. Farrell, F.w. Dupee, Edmund Wilson -- The Appeal Of Trotskyism -- Revolutionary Intellectuals -- Philosophers And Revolutionists -- The Non-partisan Labor Defense Committee (npld) And The American Workers Party -- Party Factionalism And The French Turn -- The Eastman Heresies -- Marxism And Pragmatism -- The Moscow Trials -- The American Committee For The Defense Of Leon Trotsky -- The Hearings In Mexico -- Marxist Cultural Renaissance -- The Ambiguities Of Anti-stalinism -- Twilight Of The Thirties -- Cannonites And Shachtmanites -- Party Leaders And Party Politics -- Portrait: James P. Cannon -- Portrait: Max Shachtman -- James Burnham: From Neo-thomism To Trotskyism -- Schism -- The Second Imperialist War -- The Enigma Of World War Ii -- Dwight Macdonald: From Trotskyism To Anarcho-pacifism -- Meyer Schapiro: Socialist Internationalist -- The Politics Of Literary Criticism. By Alan M. Wald. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 375-422. For a generation, Alan M. Wald's The New York Intellectuals has stood as the authoritative account of an often misunderstood chapter in the history of a celebrated tradition among literary radicals in the United States. His passionate investigation of over half a century of dissident Marxist thought, Jewish internationalism, fervent political activism, and the complex art of the literary imagination is enriched by more than one hundred personal interviews, unparalleled primary research, and critical interpretations of novels and short stories depicting the inner lives of committed writers and thinkers. Wald's commanding biographical portraits of rebel outsiders who mostly became insiders retains its resonance today and includes commentary on Max Eastman, Elliot Cohen, Lionel Trilling, Sidney Hook, Tess Slesinger, Philip Rahv, Mary McCarthy, James T. Farrell, Irving Kristol, Irving Howe, Hannah Arendt, and more. With a new preface by the author that tracks the rebounding influence of these intellectuals in the era of Occupy and Bernie Sanders, this anniversary edition shows that the trajectory and ideological ordeals of the New York intellectual Left still matters today. In contrast to other scholars who emphasize the affinity of the "New York Intellectuals" for literary modernism and its largely Jewish composition as its defining characteristics, Wald finds these traits to be secondary to the group's agonizing efforts in the 1930s and after to build a Marxist alternative to the official Communist movement. Wald presents an absorbing account of this misunderstood chapter in the history of literary radicalism and the Marxist intellectual tradition in the United States. 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 Alan M. Wald. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.