A Time Of Upheaval  

After a brief period of excitement over fascism and Bonapartism in France, American liberals have returned to their cherished complacency by observing that nothing has really changed in that country. Newspapermen even report the significant fact that restaurants serve the …



Sibley At Stanford  

Down on the farm, as Stanford University’s campus is sometimes called, an atmosphere of the leisurely past is carefully cultivated. The campus itself, sprawling across acres of precious Peninsula real estate, seems to argue for days gone by when a …



Current Trends In U.S. Economy  

The interesting thing about this recession is that signs of it were visible as far back as two years ago. One indication of economic malaise was an enormous credit expansion accompanied, curiously enough, by a slowing down in the rate …



Telephone … But No Visa  

READERS OF DISSENT will know Edouard Roditi as an occasional contributor on Islamic problems. Others will remember him as an American poet and critic of literature and art. Born in Paris of an American family that has resided there for …



Khrushchev And The Jews  

Les Juifs Ne Savent Pas S’Orga’niser En Collectivitd. (The Jews Do Not Know How to Organize Themselves Collectively.) So ran the headline over an interview by Nikita Khrushchev to Le Figaro, a Parisian newspaper, on April 9, 1958. Staring at …





Popular Art And Folk Art  

The commercial practices of the entertainment industry certainly constitute one of the most ominous aspects of the present cultural crisis; but really it is not so much the commercialization of artproduction which is so novel and important for contemporary interpretation; …





A Bewildering Debate  

Inevitably the world is heading toward another “summit” conference. Working feverishly to redefine positions which they had assumed for propaganda purposes, diplomats prepare formulas to end the cold war which they know the other side will reject. Trying to place …



Political Causes of the Recession  

The recession has been deepening now for 7 months. Industrial production, the most sensitive indicator of the state of the economy, has dropped some 10% during this period—a sharper and swifter decline than took place in the 1949 and 1954 …



Responsibility and History  

You say,” says the Intellectual to his opponent, the Revolutionary, “that at a certain historical moment the specific interest of the working class becomes completely identified with the interests of all of mankind and not only preserves human values but …



George Lukacs: An Intellectual Portrait  

Now can life become essential? How can value become reality and meaning be made effective? Around these questions the lifework of George Lukacs is centered. The paradox of his development is that he found the lost “homeland” in Stalinism and …





Epitaph for Eros  

The time has come to relax. Sex is here to stay. The age of pioneers is past. The frontier is homesteaded by the suitcase farmers; main street is lined with porcelain fronted stores. Now safely in the hands of the …