The responsibility of intellectuals : selected essays on Marxist traditions in cultural commitment / Alan M. Wald.

Pt. I. Trotskyism and Anti-Stalinism. 1. Sculptor on the Left: Duncan Ferguson's Search for Wholeness. 2. Victor Serge and the New York Anti-Stalinist Left, 1937-47. 3. The New York Literary Left. 4. From Margin to Center: C. L. R. James. 5. Trotskyism in the Sixties: Afterword to Michael Smith's Notebook of a Sixties Lawyer --
Pt. II. Communism and Culture. 6. Remembering the Answers. 7. The Legacy of Howard Fast. 8. Aspects of the Communist Experience. Tethered to the Past. Reading, Writing, and Red-Baiting. C. P. Ups and Downs. A Radical Writer Rediscovered. To Live without Hypocrisy. Marxism in the United States. 9. Down the Academic Memory Hole --
Pt. III. Race and Culture. 10. The Culture of "Internal Colonialism": A Marxist Perspective. 11. Hegemony and Literary Tradition in America. 12. Racism and Academe: Issues in the University of Michigan Struggle. 13. Theorizing Cultural Difference: A Critique of the "Ethnicity School" 14. Free Speech and the Campus Anti-Racist Movement: The Need for Immediate Response and Long-term Transformation. 15. Chicano Radicalism --
Pt. IV. Commitment. 16. In Tribute to Burger's Daughter. 17. Jacoby's Complaint. 18. Radical Pedagogy. 19. Continuity in Working-Class Literary Movements. 20. Remembering George Breitman.

This is a book that will engage students and scholars of U.S. literature and radicalism, as well as political activists in the labor, antiracist, peace, and socialist movements. It brings together many of Alan M. Wald's most influential and original essays of the last decade on Marxist writers and intellectuals. A richly provocative inquiry into the antinomies of cultural radicalism, the collection is distinguished by Wald's characteristic blend of original, meticulous research with lucid, incisive theory. These essays center on Wald's efforts to critically assess what remains recuperable in the traditions of "committed" radical cultural workers. The selections include biographical sketches of twentieth-century activist writers, artists, and intellectuals; the analysis of radical fiction, poetry, and works of criticism; the critique of various Marxist theories of cultural policy and practice; a review of contemporary debates about racism and culture; and several searching explorations of the ambiguities and challenges of left-wing political commitment in our time.