James Farrell and James Cain (was Re: Michael Moore Responds)

Dhlazare at aol.com Dhlazare at aol.com
Sat May 30 06:57:05 PDT 1998


Louis Proyect writes:

<< Farrell, like most of the writers grouped around the Partisan Review, began

to shift to the right after WWII, when the cold war began.

PR's journey to the right began several years earlier, around 1940, when the editors sided with minority faction of the SWP, led by Max Schachtman, which, due to the Hitler-Stalin Pact and the invasion of Finland, wished to read the Soviet Union out of the movement by declaring to no longer be a workers' state. Farrel, as far as I know, remained with the majority faction. By 1942, however, Rahv and Williams, the two chief editors, had jumped on the WW@ bandwagon and had essentially dropped all fundamental criticism of the U.S. state. Criticism of certain aspects would of course continue, but not criticism of America's fundamental nature or mission.

Dan Lazare



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