The University of North Carolina Press
456 pp., 6.125 x 9.25
The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left From the 1930s to the 1980s
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.
"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
"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
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Paper: $36.95
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