If I Had A Hammer"If I Had a Hammer unearths the roots of the counter-culture and political radicalism of the 60s, and shatters the myth of the 50s as a decade of deadening conformity. For the 'Old Left,' the 50s were indeed a decade of defeat and disillusionment, as Maurice Isserman demonstrates through incisive and poignant portraits of aging radicals, including Irving Howe, Norman Thomas, and A. J. Muste. But defeat also compelled a reexamination of cherished beliefs, like the myth of the revolutionary proletariat, and facing up to new political realities, like the domestic consequences of the Cold War. Old dogmas were discarded along with old dreams. Professor Isserman challenges the current notion that the radicalism of the 60s was mere psychological aberration. He also dispels a favorite illusion of the 'New Left' itself--that it was borne by immaculate conception without ties to a 'Old Left' it pointedly repudiated. Ironically, the 'New Left' drew lessons from its predecessor never intended by the 'Old Left,' while it repeated mistakes it found unforgivable in the parent it disowned. If I Had a Hammer calls into question our favored assumptions about this pregnant moment in American history." -- Book jacket |
Contents
The Collapse of the Communist Party | 1 |
Max Shachtman A Sectarians Progress | 35 |
Dissent Journal of Tired Heroism | 77 |
Copyright | |
2 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
If I Had a Hammer: The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left Maurice Isserman No preview available - 1987 |
Common terms and phrases
American Communist April began Bigelow Browder camp campus Cheyenne civil rights movement CNVA College Committee Communism Communist party critical Daily Worker Dave McReynolds debate decade Dellinger Democratic Denitch Dissent Dorothy Healey early Erber Foster Glazer Golden Rule Haber Hal Draper Hayden Howe's Independent Socialist League intellectuals internal Irving issue journal Labor Action leaders leadership Lewis Coser liberal Lyttle Macdonald March Margin of Hope mass culture Max Shachtman ment Michael Harrington nonviolent nuclear testing NVAANW Old Left organization pacifists Partisan Review Party's People's Socialist League Plastrik political Port Huron Port Huron statement protest radical pacifists Reel revolution revolutionary role Rustin SANE SANE's SCPC sectarian Shacht Shachtman Collection Shachtmanites social Socialist party Soviet Union spring Stalin Stalinist Steve Nelson Student Peace Union Tamiment tion Todd Gitlin Trotsky Trotskyist Walzer Workers party wrote York Young People's Socialist Young Socialist youth YPSL