Intellectuals in action : the origins of the new left and radical liberalism, 1945-1970
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Intellectuals in action : the origins of the new left and radical liberalism, 1945-1970
Pennsylvania State University Press, c2002
- : pbk
Available at 11 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [275]-295) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Born in 1966' a generation removed from the counterculture' Kevin Mattson came of political age in the conservative Reagan era. In an effort to understand contemporary political ambivalence and the plight of radicalism today' Mattson looks back to the ideas that informed the protest' social movements' and activism of the 1960s.
To accomplish its historical reconstruction' the book combines traditional intellectual biography-including thorough archival research-with social history to examine a group of intellectuals whose thinking was crucial in the formulation of New Left political theory. These include C. Wright Mills' the popular radical sociologist; Paul Goodman' a practicing Gestalt therapist and anarcho-pacifist; William Appleman Williams' the historian and famed critic of "American empire"; Arnold Kaufman' a "radical liberal" who deeply influenced the thinking of the SDS. The book discusses not only their ideas' but also their practices' from writing pamphlets and arranging television debates to forming left-leaning think tanks and organizing teach-ins protesting the Vietnam War. Mattson argues that it is this political engagement balanced with a commitment to truth-telling that is lacking in our own age of postmodern acquiescence.
Challenging the standard interpretation of the New Left as inherently in conflict with liberalis' Mattson depicts their relationship as more complicated' pointing to possibilities for a radical liberalism today. Intellectual and social historians' as well as general readers either fascinated by the 1960s protest movements or actively seeking an alternative to our contemporary political malais' will embrace Mattson's book and its promise to shed new light on a time period known for both its intriguing conflicts and its enduring consequences.
by "Nielsen BookData"