Irving Howe--Socialist, Critic, Jew

"... scrupulous, fair-minded and richly-detailed study... the book charts one of the most remarkable intellectual careers of the 20th century's latter half.... What is most heartening about Mr. Alexander's biography is its exemplary civility and nuance in discussing ideas across the lines of political difference." --Nathan Glick, Washington Times

"Anyone interested in Howe's varied career, and the historical context that has given it its particular shape--American radicalism, the Cold War and anticommunism, the New Left, literary modernism, Jewish life--will profit handsomely from reading Alexander's respectful book." --Wilson Quarterly

"Edward Alexander's captivating study of Irving Howe is illuminating and

scrupulous; it is also temperate, generous, and deeply fair-minded. If

Howe were alive, he would thank the author--and even now, in Paradise, he

is surely doing so (while hotly continuing the discussion)."

From the 1940s to the 1990s, Irving Howe was a dominant, if controversial, figure in American intellectual life. Author of the prize-winning WORLD OF OUR FATHERS, Howe was founder and editor of the democratic socialist magazine DISSENT. Through a clear, eloquent, and forcefully argued study of Howe's politics, writings, and thought, Edward Alexander constructs a sympathetic, yet critical intellectual biography of this complex individual.

For over 50 years, from the 1940s to the 1990s, Irving Howe was a commanding, if controversial, figure in American intellectual life. Writing with the productivity of a major industry, Howe took on issues ranging from left-wing politics and American writers to Yiddish literature, the State of Israel, the condition of the American academy, and New York cultural and literary life. Best known for his prize-winning history of American Jewish immigrant culture, "World of Our Fathers," Howe was an outspoken socialist as well as founder and editor of the democratic socialist magazine "Dissent." Through a clear, eloquent, and forcefully argued study of Howe's politics, writings, and thought, Edward Alexander constructs a sympathetic yet critical intellectual biography of this complex individual.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-276) and index.

Edward Alexander is Professor of English at the University of Washington. His books include Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, and the Modern Temper; The Resonance of Dust: Essays on Holocaust Literature and Jewish Fate; Isaac Bashevis Singer: A Study of the Short Fiction; and The Holocaust and the War of Ideas.