Wald, Alan M.

Writing From the Left: New Essays on Radical Culture and Politics

ISBN: 9781859840016
New York, NY, USA: Verso Books, 1994. First Softcover Edition, Review Copy. Trade Paperback. “Readers may profit from an explanation for why this unabashedly “presentist” volume on the US Marxist literary tradition allocates so much attention to cultural workers associated with the Communist Party between the early 1930s and late 1950s. Such a focus may seem even more perplexing once the reader learns that the author has defined his politics as resolutely “anti-Stalinist” (albeit within the tradition of revolutionary Marxism) since he began writing from the Left, as well as about the Left, as an undergraduate student in the 1960s and 1970s. Part of the explanation for the central role of literary Communism in this volume, and, indeed, its continuing relevance, is its foundational role within an interpretation of a Marxist cultural tradition separated into two interrelated yet distinct phases. In the first phase, the decisive features of the phenomenon were established in the decades following the Russian Revolution of 1917 as Communist theory and activism intersected with the US social crisis of the Great Depression. What was built between the early 1930s and the crisis of international Communism in 1956-58 was a relatively coherent, though not monolithic or always consistent, Marxist cultural movement allied with the political dynamism of the US Communist Party. A distinctive feature of this tradition, to which I pay homage in writing from the Left, was that its great theme was anti-racism, which I believe should continue to remain a primary concern of any US cultural Left at the present and in the future.”--Alan M. Wald, “Introduction,” pg. 1. Alan M. Wald (b. 1946), is an American professor emeritus of English Literature and American Culture at our beloved University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and writer of 20th-century American literature who focuses on Communist writers; he is an expert on the American 20th-Century "Literary Left.” Offered today is a review copy of the 1994 work, Writing From the Left: New Essays on Radical Culture and Politics. From the back cover: “In this wide-ranging new collection the author of the acclaimed The New York Intellectuals surveys the current crisis of the writers and cultural workers radicalized by the 1960s. He argues that the left can draw strength by reconceptualizing its cultural legacy as a rich, diverse stream of political and cultural experiences flowing over six decades. Writing from the Left draws deeply on this tradition, highlighting its contemporary relevance. After an assessment of some classic US Marxist texts, Wald resurrects numerous “lost” radical writers from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, applying today’s concerns of race, gender, and mass culture to the past. He then analyses more recent developments in Marxist scholarship, combining oral history, close textual analysis, fresh primary research and empirically grounded theory to argue that a Marxism based on anti-Stalinist principles can learn much from the hidden, misunderstood legacy of US Communism. Indeed, in his view the importance of anti-racist political struggle in this tradition has been - and should remain - the ‘great theme’ of the United States’ cultural and political left.” From the collection of Lawrence Goldstein (1943-2023), a renowned American poet, author, film critic, editor & academician here at the University of Michigan. We have found and retained between front cover and half-title page, a folded press release for Writing From the Left included with this review copy. Trade-format softcover. First softcover edition, first printing (review copy) though neither explicated at copyright page. In very fine condition with only minimal wear to fine edges, and slight smudging to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #8257]

Price: $45.00