Pam C. (PamC) reviewed The radical soap opera: An impression of the American left from 1917 to the present on + 117 more book reviews
From the dust cover: American leftists, whether old, new, Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyites, Maoists, or freaks, are Americans first and foremost. And despite its internationalist claims and lip-service to an occasional theoretical approach, the U.S. Left, in all its incarnations, owes as much homage to the B-Movie as to Karl Marx. This is not to disparage it, but to pin-point the root of its desires and motives.
David Zane Mairowitz's account of the American-left-as-soap-opera is rich in tragi-comedy, in real personalities as well as phoney culture heroes: among them, Stanislavsky, Sacco and Vanzetti, John Garfield, the Hollywood Ten, Bertolt Brecht, the Rosenbergs, Martin Dies, Joe McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, Wilhelm Reich, Richard M. Nixon, Joan Baez, Jerry Rubin, Timothy Leary, Dr. Spock and Baba Ram DAss.
This stunningly written and compellingly readable book puts the radicalism of the past fifty years into a new perspective.
David Zane Mairowitz's account of the American-left-as-soap-opera is rich in tragi-comedy, in real personalities as well as phoney culture heroes: among them, Stanislavsky, Sacco and Vanzetti, John Garfield, the Hollywood Ten, Bertolt Brecht, the Rosenbergs, Martin Dies, Joe McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, Wilhelm Reich, Richard M. Nixon, Joan Baez, Jerry Rubin, Timothy Leary, Dr. Spock and Baba Ram DAss.
This stunningly written and compellingly readable book puts the radicalism of the past fifty years into a new perspective.
Leo T. reviewed The radical soap opera: An impression of the American left from 1917 to the present on + 1775 more book reviews
A quite personal book, published in the aftermath of the Vietnam War protests. Beginning with Walt Whitman, it runs through the usual suspects such as Sacco & Vanzetti, the Popular Front, Whittaker Chambers, etc.
"This is not a history of the American Left movement, but rather a staging of some of its more emphatic moments." In the bibliography, note that his sources are largely the written materials by participant.
I was reluctant to rate it this high because there is NO INDEX!
"This is not a history of the American Left movement, but rather a staging of some of its more emphatic moments." In the bibliography, note that his sources are largely the written materials by participant.
I was reluctant to rate it this high because there is NO INDEX!
