New York Intellectuals

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,^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} Writer Nicholas Lemann has described these intellectuals as "the American Bloomsbury".^{[citation needed]}

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^{[citation needed]}
Elliot E. Cohen
Midge Decter
Morris Dickstein^[7]
Leslie Fiedler
Nathan Glazer^{[citation needed]}
Clement Greenberg^[8]
Paul Goodman^[9]
Richard Hofstadter
Sidney Hook^[10]^[11]
Irving Howe
Alfred Kazin
Irving Kristol
Norman Mailer^[12]
Seymour Martin Lipset
Mary McCarthy^[13]^[11]
Dwight Macdonald^[8]
William Phillips
Norman Podhoretz^{[citation needed]}
Philip Rahv
Harold Rosenberg
Isaac Rosenfeld
Delmore Schwartz^[9]
Susan Sontag
Harvey Swados
Diana Trilling
Lionel Trilling
Robert Warshow^{[citation needed]}

References

^ Alexander Bloom: Prodigal Sons. The New York Intellectuals and Their World, Oxford University Press: NY / Oxford 1986, p. 109.
^ Leonhardt, David (2017-01-18). "America's Great Working-Class Colleges". New York Times. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
^ Hartman, Andrew (2015). A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226379234.
^ Wald, Alan M. (1987). The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. UNC Press Books. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-8078-4169-3. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
^ Brick, Howard (1986). Daniel Bell and the decline of intellectual radicalism : social theory and political reconciliation in the 1940s. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 60-61,90,148. ISBN 978-0-299-10550-1. OCLC 12804502.
^ Wilford, Hugh (2003). "Playing the CIA's Tune? The New Leader and the Cultural Cold War". Diplomatic History. 27 (1). Oxford University Press (OUP): 15–34. doi:10.1111/1467-7709.00337. ISSN 0145-2096.
^ Roberts, Sam (2021-03-29). "Morris Dickstein, Critic and Cultural Historian, Dies at 81". New York Times. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
^ ^a ^b Howe 1970, p. 226.
^ ^a ^b Howe 1970, p. 228.
^ Wald, Alan M. (1987). The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. UNC Press Books. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-8078-4169-3. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
^ ^a ^b 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
^ Jumonville, Neil (1991). Critical Crossings: The New York Intellectuals in Postwar America. University of California Press. p. 187. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
^ Wald, Alan M. (1987). The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. UNC Press Books. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-8078-4169-3. Retrieved 22 June 2020.

Bibliography

Bloom, Alexander. Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals and Their World, Oxford University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-19-503662-X
Cooney, Terry A. The Rise of the New York Intellectuals: Partisan Review and Its Circle, 1934-1945, University of Wisconsin Press, 1986, ISBN 0-299-10710-8
Dorman, Joseph. Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in their Own Words. New York: Free Press, 2000. ISBN 0-684-86279-4.
Howe, Irving (1970). "The New York Intellectuals". Decline of the New. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. pp. 211–265. ISBN 978-0-15-124510-9.
Jumonville, Neil. Critical Crossings: The New York Intellectuals in Postwar America, University of California Press, 1991, ISBN 0-520-06858-0
Laskin, David. Partisans: Marriage, Politics, and Betrayal Among the New York Intellectuals University of Chicago Press, 2001, ISBN 0-226-46893-3
Podhoretz, Norman (1967). "The Family Tree". Making It. New York: Random House. pp. 109–136. OCLC 292070.
Wald, Alan M. (1987). The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4169-2.

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

[1] Alexander Bloom: Prodigal Sons. The New York Intellectuals and Their World, Oxford University Press: NY / Oxford 1986, p. 109.

[2] Leonhardt, David (2017-01-18). "America's Great Working-Class Colleges". New York Times. Retrieved 2020-06-27.

[3] Hartman, Andrew (2015). A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226379234.

[4] Wald, Alan M. (1987). The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. UNC Press Books. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-8078-4169-3. Retrieved 22 June 2020.

[Brick_1986_p.-5] Brick, Howard (1986). Daniel Bell and the decline of intellectual radicalism : social theory and political reconciliation in the 1940s. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 60-61,90,148. ISBN 978-0-299-10550-1. OCLC 12804502.

[Wilford_2003_pp._15–34-6] Wilford, Hugh (2003). "Playing the CIA's Tune? The New Leader and the Cultural Cold War". Diplomatic History. 27 (1). Oxford University Press (OUP): 15–34. doi:10.1111/1467-7709.00337. ISSN 0145-2096.

[7] Roberts, Sam (2021-03-29). "Morris Dickstein, Critic and Cultural Historian, Dies at 81". New York Times. Retrieved 2021-04-07.

[FOOTNOTEHowe1970226-8] Howe 1970, p. 226.

[FOOTNOTEHowe1970228-9] Howe 1970, p. 228.

[10] Wald, Alan M. (1987). The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. UNC Press Books. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-8078-4169-3. Retrieved 22 June 2020.

[HOCHGESCHWENDER-11] 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

[12] Jumonville, Neil (1991). Critical Crossings: The New York Intellectuals in Postwar America. University of California Press. p. 187. Retrieved 7 April 2021.

[13] Wald, Alan M. (1987). The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. UNC Press Books. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-8078-4169-3. Retrieved 22 June 2020.

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v t e New York Intellectuals
Associated people	Daniel Bell Elliot E. Cohen Midge Decter Paul Goodman Irving Howe Alfred Kazin Irving Kristol Mary McCarthy Dwight Macdonald William Phillips Philip Rahv Harold Rosenberg Isaac Rosenfeld Delmore Schwartz Diana Trilling Lionel Trilling Robert Warshow
Major publications	Partisan Review (1934–2003) Commentary (1945–) The Oasis (1949) The Liberal Imagination (1950) Encounter (1953–1991) Dissent (1954–) The Public Interest (1965–2005)
Works about	The New York Intellectuals (1987 book)
Related	Anti-Stalinist left Neoconservatism

New York Intellectuals

Members

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links