The Responsibility of Intellectuals

by Wald, Alan M.

• ISBN13: 9780391037359
• ISBN10: 0391037358
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-05-01
• Publisher: Prometheus Books

Summary

This is a book that will engage students and scholars of U.S. literature and radicalism, as well as political activists in the labor, antiracist, peace, and socialist movements. It brings together many of Alan M. Wald's most influential and original essays of the last decade on Marxist writers and intellectuals. A richly provocative inquiry into the antinomies of cultural radicalism, the collection is distinguished by Wald's characteristic blend of original, meticulous research with lucid, incisive theory.
These essays center on Wald's efforts to critically assess what remains recuperable in the traditions of "committed" radical cultural workers. The selections include biographical sketches of twentieth-century activist writers, artists, and intellectuals; the analysis of radical fiction, poetry, and works of criticism; the critique of various Marxist theories of cultural policy and practice; a review of contemporary debates about racism and culture; and several searching explorations of the ambiguities and challenges of left-wing political commitment in our time.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Trotskyism and Anti-Stalinism
Sculptor on the Left: Duncan Ferguson's Search for Wholeness	p. 3
Victor Serge and the New York Anti-Stalinist Left, 1937-47	p. 39
The New York Literary Left	p. 56
From Margin to Center: C. L. R. James	p. 67
Trotskyism in the Sixties: Afterword to Michael Smith's Notebook of a Sixties Lawyer	p. 73
Communism and Culture
Remembering the Answers	p. 85
The Legacy of Howard Fast	p. 92
Aspects of the Communist Experience	p. 102
Tethered to the Past	p. 102
Reading, Writing, and Red-Baiting	p. 108
C. P. Ups and Downs	p. 112
A Radical Writer Rediscovered	p. 116
To Live without Hypocrisy	p. 119
Marxism in the United States	p. 122
Down the Academic Memory Hole	p. 126
Race and Culture
The Culture of "Internal Colonialism": A Marxist Perspective	p. 133
Hegemony and Literary Tradition in America	p. 143
Racism and Academe: Issues in the University of Michigan Struggle	p. 155
Theorizing Cultural Difference: A Critique of the "Ethnicity School"	p. 168
Free Speech and the Campus Anti-Racist Movement: The Need for Immediate Response and Long-term Transformation	p. 181
Chicano Radicalism	p. 195
Commitment	p. 205
In Tribute to Burger's Daughter	p. 214
Jacoby's Complaint
Radical Pedagogy	p. 218
Continuity in Working-Class Literary Movements	p. 225
Remembering George Breitman	p. 234
Index	p. 241
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