Winter 2026

Translated from Russian by George Dennis, this article, written in poetic prose, is presented in its first full English translation.

Last August I received a letter from Esquire magazine. Its first two paragraphs read: Looking ahead to the 1960 presidential election, this magazine feels that it would be an interesting and useful undertaking to present the opinions of outstanding men …

I am one of the authors of The Ugly American. The one, who as Mr. Buttinger so graciously puts it, “calls himself a political scientist.” The editors of DISSENT describe the essay by Mr. Buttinger as a “sustained polemic” against …

Michael Walzer has written a suggestive essay on American education [DISSENT, Spring and Summer 1959]. Yet, with all the thoughtfulness and knowledge he displays, I do not think that he has posed the key problems of American education. Walzer commits …

ASPECTS OF REVOLT, by Max Nomad. Bookman Associates, New York, 1959. This collection of essays by the veteran writer Max Nomad is a reminder that we do have a radical who has devoted himself to uncovering unorthodox socialist thinkers and …

THE JEWISH LABOR BUND, A PICTORIAL HISTOR. FARLAG UNSER TSAIT. 1958. The first picture in this book shows the house in Wilno where the Bund, the Jewish Socialist movement of Poland, held its secret founding convention in 1897. The last …

Puerto Ricans and Sentimentality Editors: I suppose if one were to total up the comments of Stanley Plastrik in his review of my book, Island in the City, [DISSENT, Spring 1959], the scales would be slightly more weighted on the …

The value of a socialist orientation to contemporary events is demonstrated by the most unlikely people. In the course of his mea culpa in Washington the head of the Columbia Broadcasting System set forth the framework for understanding the quiz …

By now there is a whole repertoire of responses to the quiz fix. One hears a muffled mea cu/pa from the fixed and the fixers; some simulate indignation or cry on cue, while others demonstrate their know-how more creatively. One …

Khrushchev is reported to have remarked that Dr. Zhivago might have been published in the Soviet Union if only a few hundred words had been eliminated. The fact is, of course, that it was not published; but it might be …

One wet October morning the telephone at the foreman’s desk rang. It was a call from the chairman of the shop committee. “I’m putting you in my place as committeeman,” he said. “Why?” “Because,” he answered, “I’ve been fired. 1 …

They stroll the narrow, shabby streets, chat at the corners, lean against the peeling pillars of the town saloon, the St. Michael Hotel & Restaurant, and they look more like movie actors than real human beings, because something is wrong. …

Basic changes are taking place in the American economy and the American labor movement. They signify a crisis of historic proportions. Among these changes I would include automation, the wider application of electronics to industry, the use of computers for …