Harold Laski and American Liberalism - 9781138510548

Taylor & Francis

Harold Laski and American LiberalismAuthor(s): Gary Best\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781138510548, 978-1138510548\nSynopsis\nFor nearly three decades, the English political scientist Harold Laski was the gray eminence of American liberalism and its most influential Marxist public intellectual. As a fervent proponent of the New Deal in the 1930s, much of Laski's success stemmed from the fact that he offered answers when so many Americans had only questions. By the postwar years, however, his reputation was in decline and his influence left the Democratic Party vulnerable in the1948 elections. In Harold Laski and American Liberalism Gary Dean Best traces the trajectory of Laski's American career and accounts for its ultimate failure.\n\nAmerican politics and society were central to Laski's intellectual enterprise. As Best shows, probably no one residing in America has published as many words critical of the Unit.