Customer Reviews

The Conservative Turn: Lionel Trilling, Whittaker Chambers, and the Lessons of Anti-Communism (Harvard Historical Studies)

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Michael Kimmage's The Conservative Turn is a must-have for anyone interested in intellectual history throughout the thirties and into the early Cold War. The book follows the lives of Whittaker Chambers and Lionel Trilling from their radical university days to their eventual split into competing ideological camps. Kimmage's thesis the work of these two men set the tone for the remaining ideological battles of the twentieth century. For the most part he does a good job in arguing his case. Usually each chapter is well divided between events shaped around Chambers and Trilling; as their lives become ideologically separated, so does their personal connection to each other. While Chambers and Trilling both attended Columbia in the 20s, their youthful radicalism morphs into support for revolutionary communism. In the case of Chambers this would involve treasonous acts of spying (eventually of course leading to the Hiss trial). For Trilling, his rebellion was of an intellectual variety (like his entire life). Much of Kimmage's analysis goes into Trilling balancing concerns for the growing menace of capitalist society and the lost "virtues" of European society. This of course would become Trilling's signature throughout his professional and intellectual career. One of the most effective ways that Kimmage uses to examine Trilling and Chambers is through literary analysis. Kimmage meticulously traces their literary lives- from Chambers early play called "A Play for Puppets" to Trillings early writings for the Jewish "Menorah Journal". He equally devotes much criticism to Trillings's' only novel "The Middle of the Journey" and to Chambers' opus "Witness".

By the end of Kimmage's work, I felt so connected with these two men and the professional, intellectual, and spiritual challenges that they both faced. While I will admit that sometimes it seems that the thesis is a bit stretched (which one could say about a lot of things) it overall explains much of the mid-twentieth century struggles intellectuals faced in the growing threat of the Soviet Union and The Cold War. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in these issues, as well as just generally the New York Intellectuals and the New Right.

"The Conservative Turn" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Kimmage's book interview ran here as cover feature on September 11, 2009.