A history of Irving Howe and Dissent magazine is used to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the social democratic alternative that became the Left wing of the New York intellectuals during the 1950s. This is followed by an examination of the life and work of Harvey Swados, which also express the ambiguities that would render this tradition problematic during the era of new radicalization in the 1960s.
Leon Trotsky. By Irving Howe. Edited by Frank Kermode. New York: The Viking Press, 1978. x, 214 pp. $10.00.