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Alan M. Wald

The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left From the 1930s to the 1980s Paperback – May 13, 1987

by Alan M. Wald (Author)

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The New York Intellectuals is an absorbing account of an often misunderstood chapter in the history of literary radicalism and the Marxist intellectual tradition in the United States. It is enriched by more than one hundred personal interviews as well as critical interpretations of novels and short stories depicting the inner life of the group.

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Editorial Reviews

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Wald has written a valuable book about the ''political trajectory'' of this country's leading intellectuals over the past 50 years. It is well-researched, insightful and extremely opinionated. It deserves a wide audience.--The New York Times Book Review

Wald's grasp of the ideological twists and turns of his protagonists is first-rate ... His story has an epic sweep.--D.D. Guttenplan, Village Voice

A masterwork of scholarly inquiry, based upon vast research of primary sources including interviews with over one hundred informants, and will no doubt prove to be the definitive study. Wald glides adroitly between
multiple roles of intellectual and social historian, political theorist, and literary critic; his own engaging literary style finds expression in the tightly drawn biographical sketches that he weaves gracefully into the larger fabric. This is Marxist scholarship at its best.--Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

Review

The best informed and most hard-hitting account of a group--the 'New York intellectuals-- central to twentieth-century intellectual life and politics in America. Without sharing Wald's fervent politics, I am full of admiration for his knowledge.--Alfred Kazin

An impressive piece of investigative reporting, full of facts about neglected and forgotten figures--not to mention some more familiar ones. It outdistances the current spate of books and articles on that imperfectly defined subject and sets a high standard for scholarship in its wake. It deserves wide attention.--Daniel Aaron, Harvard University

From the Back Cover

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.

Paperback: 456 pages
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; 1st Edition edition (May 13, 1987)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0807841692
ISBN-13: 978-0807841693
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Customer Reviews: 3 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #876,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #616 in Radical Political Thought
- #1634 in Communism & Socialism (Books)
- #244 in Modernism Literary Criticism (Books)

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WorldAnalyst

Info on various figures who went from Trotskyism to Neo-Conservativism ...

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Info on various figures who went from Trotskyism to Neo-Conservativism. A lot of short biographical pieces. Gives an impression of the atmosphere in NYC. Provides insight into the battle between James Cannon and the Schachtmanites in 1939.

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Christopher Phelps

The best book on the New York intellectuals

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2015

Format: Paperback

A superb book on a circle of intellectuals that charts their initial attraction to Communism, their reconsideration and positioning of themselves as the anti-Stalinist left, and finally their deradicalization. The best book on the New York intellectuals, essential reading.

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Marc Lichtman

At best a footnote to the split in the SWP against the petty-bourgeois opposition

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2014

Format: Paperback

At best this book is a minor footnote to a major battle in the Socialist Workers Party in 1939-40 that led to a split with what Trotsky characterized as "the petty-bourgeois opposition." As US involvement in World War II drew nearer, most of the intellectuals in the party were in panic. The form the debate took was primarily around the class nature of the Soviet Union, dialectics, and party organization. But it was really all about what position to take in the coming war.

Out of the Jewish intellectuals in this book, one, George Novack, became a lifelong revolutionary. One can find his books on philosophy and history by searching under his name; I would personally recommend starting with Understanding History: Marxist Essays. As to the literary figures, I'm not qualified to pass any judgements.

The main books that document this split are In Defense of Marxism: The Social and Political Contradictions of the Soviet Union by Trotsky, and The Struggle for a Proletarian Party by SWP leader James P. Cannon. You will find additional supplementary information in Background to the Struggle for a Proletarian Party' and The Abern Clique.

The subtitle of this book is "The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left From the 1930s to the 1980s." Let me just say that at no point in its history did the Socialist Workers Party consider itself to be part of an "anti-Stalinist left." Revolutionaries define themselves by what they're for, not what they're against, and just the concept of an anti-Stalinist left takes you continually closer to anti-communism. If you have any doubts about this, I suggest reading Cannon's "American Stalinism and Anti-Stalinism," which you will find in The Struggle for Socialism in the "American Century": Writings and Speeches, 1945-1947 (James P. Cannon writings & speeches). This book also takes up a final attempt to reunite with the Shachtman group, done largely because some in the Fourth International were not yet convinced.

You can also read Trotsky, particularly his writings on who to include in the International Left Opposition, and later in the Fourth International. These writings can be found in the 14 volume series Writings of Leon Trotsky.

8 people found this helpful

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Sean Daisley

Book chronicles that period in the US when Socialism and ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Book chronicles that period in the US when Socialism and Communism vied as a potential hegemon in US politics. This describes the intellectuals of the thirties in the context of Roosevelt, the wave of industrial militancy that founded the CIO, the Spanish Revolution/Civil War and the broader anti fascist fight of the thirties. A Wald has written a few books on this theme.

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