Much of my life has been split between two worlds: blue-collar unions and the intellectual-academic arena—a sort of long-haired working stiff, or at least an uncommon marginal man. Born in a tough Irish working-class neighborhood and reared on Catholicism, Irish …
Peter Gay’s book breathes elegance, wit, and discernment. His portrayal of the scholarly, literary, and artistic brilliance of the first German republic illuminates much that has been obscure or available only through specialized monographs. The Bauhaus, German Expressionism, the internationally …
Recently the idea of a volunteer army, as a substitute for UMT or the draft, has gained adherents among pacifists and opponents of the Vietnam War. The following “theses” have been circulated among DISSENT editors and have received favorable as …
India is celebrating this year the 100th anniversary of its modern “saint,” Mahatma Gandhi. Saints, as George Orwell once pointed out, are difficult people. We like to believe that the Mahatma would have looked with disdain upon the idolatrous ceremonies now …
To the Russian invaders, the liberal socialism of Ota Sik, one-time head of the Czechoslovakian Economic Institute, was intolerable. After the Russians entered Prague, Sik was high on the list of those to be removed from office. He happened to …
The name of Leszek Kolakowski is famous outside the borders of his native Poland and far beyond the circle of professional philosophers, not because his doctrines are exciting like Sartre’s or his discoveries pioneering like Galileo’s, but because his much …
Throughout most of his career, Mikhail Bulgakov, author of The Master and Margarita, was under attack by Party critics. By 1930 his plays were barred from the Soviet stage, and ultimately a general ban was placed upon all his publications, …
The poor prospects for peace in Vietnam arise directly from the military and political situation. Militarily, the war continues to be a stalemate, neither side being capable of winning, but both being able to deny victory to the opponent indefinitely. …
A presidential candidate may not need a policy, but a President does. Nixon’s election seems, in part, to have been due to his skill at gathering the support of those discontented voters who, for a variety of reasons, wanted to bring …
Elegant Tombstone Editor: In “Elegant Tombstones” (DISSENT, January – February 1969) Professor Macpherson’s major contention is that a “moment’s thought will show” Milton Friedman’s view, that under capitalism transactions are voluntary, to be wrong. For Macpherson argues “the proviso that …
A. Philip Randolph Throughout my life I have drawn much of my inspiration as a socialist from Norman Thomas. I learned from him, as well as from Eugene Victor Debs, that the struggle for racial justice is organically tied to …
It has been over three years since the young draft resister, David Henry Mitchell, III, launched his effort to persuade our courts to enforce the principles of international law proclaimed at Nuremberg. Unfortunately, that effort has not been a particularly successful …
A Friend Editors: Every time a copy of Dissent arrives at our desk we feel thrilled. All of us are so eager to go through it. It is a pity that such a fine venture has to ask for funds. Or, …
On Holy Thursday, 1968, a youth named Bachmann, an admirer of Hitler, shot and critically wounded Rudi Dutschke, the leader of a militant Berlin student group. As a result of this attempted murder, there were violent student demonstrations during Easter …
Like other minorities, black Americans have a history of their own—peculiar sufferings and peculiar experiences, as well as special forms of resistance or of protective evasion. But this history is distinguished from the history of all other minorities in that …
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