Irving Howe - Twenty-Five Years of Dissent: An American Tradition

Volume 25

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF DISSENT

Edited by

IRVING HOWE

First published in 1979 by Methuen

This edition first published in 2022

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

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1979 The DISSENT Corporation

Introduction 1979 Irving Howe

All selections previously published in DISSENT. 1956, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-03-203038-8 (Set)

ISBN: 978-1-00-319086-8 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-03-204549-8 (Volume 25) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-03-204552-8 (Volume 25) (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-00-319373-9 (Volume 25) (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003193739

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

AN AMERICAN TRADITION

IRVING HOWE

Compilation copyright 1979 by The Dissent Corporation

Introduction copyright 1979 by Irving Howe.

All selections in this volume have been published previously in Dissent.

Copyright 1956, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974,
1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 by the Dissent Publishing Corporation
All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Manufactured in the United States of America

First American Edition

Published in the United States of America by

Methuen, Inc.

733 Third Avenue New York, N.Y. 10017

Designer: Ernst Reichl

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Main entry under title:

25 years of Dissent.

1. SocialismAddresses, essays, lectures.

2. United StatesSocial conditions1945

Addresses, essays, lectures. 1. Howe, Irving.

2. Dissent.

HX44.T88 1979 335.008 79-17139

ISBN 0-416-00041-X

ISBN 0-416-00051-7 pbk.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF
Dissent
AN AMERICAN TRADITION

Introduction, Irving Howe

MICHAEL HARRINGTON

What Socialists Would Do in AmericaIf They Could

HENRY M. PACHTER

Three Economic Models: Capitalism, the Welfare State, and Socialism

ROBERT L. HEILBRONER

Roots of the Socialist Dilemma

IRVING HOWE

Socialism and Liberalism: Articles of Conciliation?

PART TWO America in Turmoil

PAUL GOODMAN

The Devolution of Democracy

BRENDAN SEXTON

Middle-Class Workers and the New Politics

ALICE S. ROSSI

WomenTerms of Liberation

JERVIS ANDERSON

The Agonies of Black Militancy

JESSE PITTS

The Counterculture: Tranquilizer or Revolutionary Ideology?

DAVID M. MUCHNICK

Death Warrant for the Cities?

CHANDLER DAVIDSON

On the Culture of Shiftlessness

THEODORE DRAPER

Ghosts of Vietnam

ROSE L. COSER and LEWIS COSER

The Commune as Perverse Utopia

PART THREE Ideas on Politics and Culture

HAROLD ROSENBERG

Marxism: Criticism and/or Action

DENNIS H. WRONG

The Idea of Community: a Critique

DAVID SPITZ

Pure Tolerance

ERAZIM V. KOHK

Requiem for Utopia

MICHAEL WALZER

In Defense of Equality

OCTAVIO PAZ

Twilight of Revolution

ROY MEDVEDEV

Solzhenitsyns Gulag Archipelago: Part II

MARSHALL BERMAN

All That Is Solid Melts into Air

PART FOUR Short Subjects

IGNAZIO SILONE

Prosperityand Then What?

DAVID BROMWICH

Blood Orange, or Violence in the Movies

STANLEY PLASTRIK

The Russian Revolution Revisited

JOSEPH CLARK

Dreams and Nightmares

MURRAY HAUSKNECHT

Metaphors of Life and Death

IRVING HOWE

To be a socialist in Europe means to belong to a movement commonly accepted as part of democratic political life, a contender in the battle of interest and idea. To be a socialist in America means to exist precariously on the margin of our politics, as critic, gadfly, and reformer, struggling constantly for a bit of space. Lonely and beleaguered as it may be, this position of the American socialist has, nevertheless, an advantage: it forces one to the discomforts of self-critical reflection. And that, sometimes fruitfully and sometimes not, has been a central concern of Dissent , the democratic socialist quarterly which, as I write early in 1979, has reached its twenty-fifth anniversary (notable for any little magazine, all the more so for one holding unpopular views). You will find in this book a representative sample of the best work that has appeared in Dissent this past quarter of a century, though not, of course, a systematic exposition of the democratic socialist point of view. But rather than discuss the merits or failings of one or another articlethe reader can do that perfectly well, unaidedI would like in this introduction to say a few words about the historical context in which our work has occurred.

The story of the left in America is one of high initial hopes, followed by considerable if not major achievements, and ending with painful, even disastrous collapse. Why this recurrent rhythm, enacted now three times in the last seventy-five years?

The first and strongest upsurge of the American left occurred as Debsian socialism, starting before the First World War. Of all the radical movements weve had, this was the most American. It was the least ideologically pure, the most inclined to speak in a vocabularyevangelistic, folksy, shrewd, idealisticthat ordinary Americans might respond to. By 1912 this loosely strung Socialist Party had over 100,000 members; had elected some 1,200 public officials; and was sponsoring 300 periodicals, one of which, the erratic