ISBN: 9780253007278
Editorial: Indiana University Press
Autor: Gerald Sorin
Año de edición: 2012
N° Paginas: 528
Tipo de pasta: Pasta dura
Descripción: Howard Fast's life, from a rough-and-tumble Jewish New York street kid to the rich and famous author of close to 100 books, rivals the Horatio Alger myth. Author of bestsellers such as Citizen Tom Paine, Freedom Road, My Glorious Brothers, and Spartacus, Fast joined the American Communist Party in 1943 and remained a loyal member until 1957, despite being imprisoned for contempt of Congress. Gerald Sorin illuminates the connections among Fast's Jewishness, his writings, and his left-wing politics and explains Fast's attraction to the Party and the reasons he stayed in it as long as he did. Recounting the story of his private and public life with its adventure and risk, love and pain, struggle, failure, and success, Sorin also addresses questions such as the relationship between modern Jewish identity and radical movements, the consequences of political myopia, and the complex interaction of art, popular culture, and politics in 20th-century America.Review"Intriguing... Fast's life becomes an excellent prism through which to view... leftist activity... along with the anticommunism hysteria of the 1940s and '50s... [A] notable study of a thorny protagonist whose life has much to reveal... about the interplay of political belief, personal identity, art, and ambition." - Publishers Weekly"Gerald Sorin tells Fast's story in this engaging and fluidly written biography. He draws connections among Fast's Jewishness, his writings, and that most curious part of his life: his long embrace of the Communist Party.... Sorin is a brilliant biographer who proves to be both sympathetic and critical of his subject. This is Sorin's second National Jewish Book Award. He won in the category of history for his Irving Howe: A Life of Passionate Dissent, in 2003." -- Jewish Book World"The volume's strength is its explication and analysis of the complex social and political context of Fast's activism and creative work. Sorin judiciously juxtaposes sources from Fast's journalism, political speeches, correspondence, and testimony by colleagues and critics with late-1940s and 1950s American anticommunist hysteria.... Sorin's lengthy critique of Fast's adherence to Communism long after most American writers and intellectuals had abandoned the party, and his shameful public silence on Stalin's crimes and Soviet anti-Semitism, are of significant import." Choice April 2013ReviewWinner, 2012 National Jewish Book Awards, Biography, Autobiography, Memoir Silver Medal winner, Biography category, 2013 Independent Publisher Book AwardsAbout the AuthorGerald Sorin is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of American and Jewish Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is author of Irving Howe: A Life of Passionate Dissent, winner of the 2003 National Jewish Book Award in History and The Prophetic Minority: American Jewish Immigrant Radicals, 1880-1920 (IUP, 1985).
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- Envío: Desde EE. UU.
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