New York Intellectuals Explained

The New York Intellectuals were a group of American writers and literary critics based in New York City in the mid-20th century. They advocated left-wing politics but were also firmly anti-Stalinist. The group is known for having sought to integrate literary theory with Marxism and socialism while rejecting Soviet socialism as a workable or acceptable political model.

Trotskyism emerged as the most common standpoint among these anti-Stalinist Marxists. Irving Kristol, Irving Howe, Seymour Martin Lipset, Leslie Fiedler, and Nathan Glazer were members of the Trotskyist Young People's Socialist League.^[1]

Many of these intellectuals were educated at City College of New York ("Harvard of the Proletariat"),^[2] New York University, and Columbia University in the 1930s, and associated in the next two decades with the left-wing political journals Partisan Review, Dissent, and the then-left-wing but later neoconservative-leaning journal Commentary. Writer Nicholas Lemann has described these intellectuals as "the American Bloomsbury".

Some, including Kristol, Sidney Hook, and Norman Podhoretz, later became key figures in the development of neoconservatism.^[3]

Members

Writers often identified as members of this group include:

• Lionel Abel
• Hannah Arendt
• William Barrett
• Daniel Bell^{[4] [5] [6]}
• Saul Bellow (despite his usual association with the city of Chicago)
  • Norman Birnbaum Elliot E. Cohen
• Midge Decter
• Morris Dickstein^[7]
  • • • • Leslie Fiedler Nathan Glazer Clement Greenberg Paul Goodman Richard Hofstadter
• Sidney Hook^{[8] [9]}
  • Irving Howe Alfred Kazin
  • Irving Kristol Norman Mailer^[10]
• Seymour Martin Lipset
• Mary McCarthy^{[11] [9]}
  • Dwight Macdonald William Phillips
  • Norman Podhoretz Philip Rahv
    • • • Harold Rosenberg Isaac Rosenfeld Delmore Schwartz Susan Sontag Harvey Swados
  • Diana Trilling Lionel Trilling
• Robert Warshow

See also

• Anti-Stalinist left
• Communism
• Frankfurt School
• Trotskyism
• Neoconservatism

Bibliography

• Bloom, Alexander. Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals and Their World, Oxford University Press, 1986,
• Cooney, Terry A. The Rise of the New York Intellectuals: Partisan Review and Its Circle, 1934-1945, University of Wisconsin Press, 1986,
• Dorman, Joseph. Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in their Own Words. New York: Free Press, 2000. .
• Book: Howe . Irving . Irving Howe . The New York Intellectuals . Decline of the New . 211–265 . 1970 . en . 978-0-15-124510-9 . Harcourt, Brace & World . New York . https://archive.org/details/declineofnew0000howe . mdy-all .
• Jumonville, Neil. Critical Crossings: The New York Intellectuals in Postwar America, University of California Press, 1991,
• Laskin, David. Partisans: Marriage, Politics, and Betrayal Among the New York Intellectuals University of Chicago Press, 2001,
• Book: Podhoretz . Norman . Norman Podhoretz . The Family Tree . Making It . 109–136 . 1967 . en . Random House . New York . 292070 . mdy-all .
• Book: Wald , Alan M. . Alan M. Wald. The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. University of North Carolina Press. 1987. 0-8078-4169-2.

Further reading

• Encyclopedia: Eisenstadt . Peter . New York intellectuals . 1088– . 2005 . en . 978-0-8156-0808-0 . Syracuse University Press . The Encyclopedia of New York State . mdy-all .

External links

• Lives of the New York intellectuals by Robert Fulford in The Globe and Mail
• The Failure of the New York Intellectuals by Daniel Silliman in Comment
• Arguing the World, a PBS documentary

Notes and References

1. Alexander Bloom: Prodigal Sons. The New York Intellectuals and Their World, Oxford University Press: NY / Oxford 1986, p. 109.
2. News: Leonhardt . David . 2017-01-18 . America's Great Working-Class Colleges . New York Times . 2020-06-27.
3. Book: Hartman . Andrew . A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars . 2015 . University of Chicago Press . 978-0226379234.
4. Book: Wald . Alan M. . The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s . 1987 . UNC Press Books . 978-0-8078-4169-3 . 210 . 22 June 2020 . en.
5. Book: Brick, Howard . Daniel Bell and the decline of intellectual radicalism : social theory and political reconciliation in the 1940s . University of Wisconsin Press . Madison, Wis . 1986 . 978-0-299-10550-1 . 12804502 . 60-61,90,148.
6. Wilford . Hugh . Playing the CIA's Tune? The New Leader and the Cultural Cold War . Diplomatic History . Oxford University Press (OUP) . 27 . 1 . 2003 . 0145-2096 . 10.1111/1467-7709.00337 . 15–34.
7. News: Roberts . Sam . 2021-03-29 . Morris Dickstein, Critic and Cultural Historian, Dies at 81 . New York Times . 2021-04-07.
8. Book: Wald . Alan M. . The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s . 1987 . UNC Press Books . 978-0-8078-4169-3 . 50 . 22 June 2020 . en.
9. Michael HOCHGESCHWENDER "The cultural front of the Cold War: the Congress for cultural freedom as an experiment in transnational warfare" Ricerche di storia politica, issue 1/2003, pp. 35-60
10. Book: Jumonville . Neil . Critical Crossings: The New York Intellectuals in Postwar America . 1991 . University of California Press . 187 . 7 April 2021 . en.
11. Book: Wald . Alan M. . The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s . 1987 . UNC Press Books . 978-0-8078-4169-3 . 141 . 22 June 2020 . en.