The Rise and Fall of the American Left

by John Patrick Diggins

Book Overview

Born in America, the American Left was nurtured by intellectuals and activists who read Jefferson and Whitman before they read Marx or Mao. One lesson this brilliant history teaches us is that the fury of radical innocence and wounded idealism so peculiar to American intellectual history springs from native soil. Nor is the American Left a single phenomenon but four surprising eruptions throughout the past century: The Lyrical Left, of the First World...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393309177
• ISBN13: 9780393309171
• Release Date: October 1992
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 436 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent history of the Left, except for the post-1960s

This book was originally published in 1973, and was republished in 1992. In it, the author traces the history of the modern American Left through eight successive "generations." He begins with the Lyrical Left of the early 20th century (Greenwich Village, Emma Goldman, etc.), continues on to the Old Left (the Wobblies, Trotskyism, etc.), and on to the New Left (the SDS, Tom Hayden, etc.) and its later incarnation the Academic Left (American schools). This is a very interesting read. The author does a good job of reaching into this American sub-culture and tracing its history as it saw it. Now, this is not a paean to the Left, nor is it an expose. Instead, it tries to present the history of the Left in a fair and even-handed manner - which it accomplishes masterly. The reason I took away one star is that, at least as of 1992, the author did not really understand what happened to the New Left. He discusses the movement of some of it into academia (where it became impotent and inward looking), and seems to believe that the rest simply abandoned its Leftist politics. In point of fact, the Academic Left went on as both the brains of the New Left, and an indoctrination center for young Americans. Unbeknownst to the author, he did describe exactly what the Left was up to, to control language, and the "modes of power and control" (education, popular entertainment and the media). In point of fact, it was a brilliant explanation of what the Left was up to and why. Has the New Left succeeded beyond the hopes and dreams of the Lyrical and Old Lefts? Time will tell. So, I would say that this is an excellent history of the American Left, faltering only at the post-1960s. But, even where it falls down, it does an interesting job of showing what the Left was thinking - and doing! Overall, I highly recommend this book.

Outstanding

A truly outstanding book. John Patrick Diggins is the greatest intellectual historian writing about America -- and this book (like his others) reflects that.