Hungary and the Failure of the Left  

Events in Hungary, The Manchester Guardian has written, have “slightly weakened the Communists, without rallying the nonCommunist left.” The words were intended to describe the French political scene, where the cry “Algeria!” greets any socialist attempt to express sympathy with …



The Communist Party Convention  

Someone, clearly not a press photographer, snapped my picture as I entered the Chateau Gardens on Houston Street and Second Avenue in New York’s lower East Side. If I shuddered that Saturday morning, it was not entirely due to the …





Heresy and Modern Culture  

In recent years there has been a marked interest in what may be called “literary sociology,” and a good many books and articles on “the situation” of the American writer and of American literature have appeared. To judge by the …





Intellectual Trends in Poland  

When doctrinal doubts begin to arise, Communist intellectuals frequently tend to revise more than the political framework of their system of beliefs. This tendency has been evident in the case of Poland, a country with an ancient and powerful European …



An Eyewitness in Hungary  

Half-way through the morning the barrier was lifted and a car came through and drew up in front of the customs house. Inside were German Red Cross men and a German journalist. The car was full of food and medical …



Release  

Five years he was locked in a cell Under sentence of death. During those years Daily the sun traced its arc The stars revolved Slum houses reeked of alcohol Music poured from radios Into crowded streets Chatter: “Marx Engels Justice. …





Letters  

Having digested the current issue of DISSENT in the comparative isolation of Puerto Rico, I am moved to sum up impressions on the publication’s relevance in the last two years. A lot of theoretical debris has been cleared away. Issues …



The Professor as Informer  

IN EARLY July 1956 James Burnham made his appearance as a government witness at a Department of Justice hearing held as the climax to a six -year-long effort by the Independent Socialist League to have its name removed from the …





Letter to Russian Writers  

In the first days of the Hungarian Revolution, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Vercors and 19 other well-known French writers and intellectuals associated with the Communist movement produced a statement which, timidly and with much circumlocution, nevertheless questioned the Russian …





The American “Income Revolution”  

Few claims concerning the direction of the American economy have been more important to social and political theory than the assertion that income has been radically redistributed. The theoretical systems built around this theme have captured the imagination of a …