Introduction: margin and mainstream; 1. War and peace, 1939–1948; 2. All over this land, 1949–1959; 3. A new left, 1960–1964; 4. The revolution will be live, 1965–1973; 5. Anticipation, 1973–1980; 6. Over the rainbow, 1980–1989; 7. What democracy looks like, 1990 to the present; Conclusion: radicalism's future.
Radicals in America offers the first complete and continuous history of left-wing social movements in the United States from the Second World War to the present.
Howard Brick is the Louis Evans Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Daniel Bell and the Decline of Intellectual Radicalism (1986), Age of Contradiction: American Thought and Culture in the 1960s (1998) and Transcending Capitalism: Visions of a New Society in Modern American Thought (2006). Christopher Phelps is associate professor of American history at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of Young Sidney Hook: Marxist and Pragmatist (1997) and articles in the Journal of American History, The Nation, The Financial Times and other periodicals. He has received several awards for his historical and political writing.
'The true history of radicalism over the past fifty years is often
lost and never found, or distorted, smeared, or colored by old
sectarian feuds. Brick and Phelps have connected the past to the
present in ways that are accessible, understandable, and without
grudge or judgment. An excellent work.' Tom Hayden, author and
politician
'This is a remarkable book, undoubtedly the most comprehensive and
synthetic history of the post-World War II American left we have or
are likely to get at any time in the near future.' Nelson
Lichtenstein, author of State of the Union
'In a time of ever-expanding inequalities and hard-hearted
policies, Radicals in America helps preserve the visionary yeast
for a better America. This fascinating book gives us a thorough,
succinct, and clear-headed history of America's ongoing radical
hopes.' Timothy B. Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name
'With vigorous narrative and analytic rigor, this inspiring and
clear-eyed account of American radicalism brings women's activism
and feminist politics from margin to center, beautifully exploring
how different radical movements learned from and built on one
another.' Johanna Brenner, author of Women and the Politics of
Class
'Howard Brick and Christopher Phelps have produced a wealth of
knowledge on the American left, dissecting its history in the last
seven decades. There is no other work on the American left so
sweeping and comprehensive in its coverage of the radical tradition
deeply rooted in the fabric of America. Radicals in America is a
must-read for anyone interested in American history and its diverse
politics.' Aldon D. Morris, author of Origins of the Civil Rights
Movement
'Something magical happened when Howard Brick and Christopher
Phelps joined forces to craft this enthralling account of the US
left from its upsurge after World War II to the near present. The
two activist scholars, noted for distinguished books of their own,
orchestrate stunning erudition, rigorous argumentation, lucid
language, and a cohesive narrative to address a serious and taxing
topic. Radicals in America is a learned volume, unsurpassed for a
supreme command of the facts, yet is also a political breakthrough
in the battle over memory of the postwar left. Exemplifying what
Walter Benjamin meant when he referred to 'the past charged with
the time of now', this account does not merely tell the old story
of the left in new clothes. Its pages embody the spirit of
resistance come back from the dead to redress injustice.' Alan
Wald, Against the Current
'The telling is nonjudgmental, the stories inspirational.' Left
Lion
'The protagonist of [Brick and Phelps'] history is the radical …
whose critical spirit and willingness to challenge the system -
even at the risk of being scorned, fired, spat upon, beaten,
jailed, or possibly killed - succeeds decade after decade in
inspiring new mass movements implicitly aiming for another sort of
society with greater freedom, equality, democracy, and solidarity …
Highly readable and fast-paced.' Dan LaBotz, New Politics
'In Radicals in America: The U.S. Left since the Second World War
Howard Brick and Christopher Phelps suggest that the story of
American radicalism is best understood as a dialectic between 'the
willingness to hold fast for a minority view and the struggle to
imagine and help fashion a new majority'. Tilting too far towards
either pole leads to impotence and failure, but at their best
leftists have managed to hold both commitments in a dynamic
tension. The book, which appears as part of a series aimed at
undergraduates, could be profitably assigned to those with no prior
knowledge of the American left. But its analytic bite and
well-chosen illustrations recommend it to seasoned students.' Tim
Barker, Dissent
'Excellent … A powerful history of how the Left has both succeeded
and failed to bring its views into the center of American political
life.' Andrew Hartman, Jacobin
'Radicals in America is a generous overview, well-written and rich
with detail, offering readers a lively way to grasp a subject that
has often seemed more discontinuous and elusive than
understandable.' Paul Buhle, Tikkun
'The book is admirable for its engaging structure, its inclusive
and evenhanded coverage, and the novel insights it offers on the
Left's potential to shape society.' Andrew Cornell, The Journal of
American History
'One of the great strengths of this impressive book is the texture
it brings to the world of the left, going well beyond the
organizations that made headlines and the familiar characters of
movement politics … What comes through [from Brick and Phelps] is
their appreciation of the breadth of vision and the moral courage
of the people they chronicle.' Kimberly Phillips-Fein, The
Sixties
'Brick and Phelps have written an indispensable synthesis of the
history of the American left that is neither sentimental nor
celebratory. Its most important achievement is the recovery of the
voices of those often footnoted or simply ignored in the narratives
of the mainstream labour and civil rights movements. The American
left has indeed been more diverse, more complex, more voluble, and
more persistent than is often portrayed, particularly in the
post-1960s period.' Michael Dennis, Labour/Le Travail
'An ambitious, yet successful, systematization of the whole history
of American radicalism from 1945 to the present, as well as a
fruitful attempt to distill its gist. Radicals in America is the
kind of herculean job that only two consummate experts in the
field, such as historians Brick and Phelps, could have achieved.'
Luca Falciola, International Labor and Working-Class History
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