Social Critics and Social Criticism

Permanent URI for this collection

Browse and Search Information

  • Browse by clicking on one of the main categories under Browse, or by clicking on one of the category headings under Discover.
  • To search using a single keyword, type it in the box above. On the results page you will be able to select a filter to narrow your search to one of these areas: author, title, subject.
  • To search using a phrase (including a first and last name), put quotation marks around it ("Leonard Cohen").

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 20 of 43
  • Item
    Norman Lear’s early experience of antisemitism made him America’s conscience: The ‘All in the Family’ and ‘Jeffersons’ producer died at 101
    (The Forward, 2023-12-06) Grisar, PJ
    Norman Lear, who produced such pioneering and iconic television series as "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons," "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," and "Maude" died at the age of 101 on December 5, 2023. Lear was known for the social consciousness of his work. Lear attributes the birth of his social consciousness to his early experience with antisemitism. In a 2014 interview with The Forward, he described how, at the age of 9, he learned that "people disliked me because of my Jewishness," and stated that that realization profoundly influenced his attitudes about people. "My sympathies, my empathy," he noted, "went out to people who were automatically disliked just because of who they are." In addition to his career in television, Lear was an advocate for liberal causes, founding the progressive group, People for the American Way. Click on the link above to read the article.
  • Item
    Judith Shulevitz on the Radical Idea of the Sabbath
    (The Atlantic, 2010-05-14) Goldberg, Jeffrey
    An interview conducted by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic Magazine with Judith Shulevitz about her book, "The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time."Shulevitz claims that the Sabbath is a radical concept in that it establishes the idea that "everyone, not just the upper classes, not just the priests and doctors and elites and the king have the right to rest in a regular way one day a week Indeed, she states, "[the Sabbath]...was so radically progressive that it even mandated that you had to give your animals the day off." Click on the link to read the interview.
  • Item
    Todd Gitlin, 1943–2022
    (Dissent Magazine, 2022-02-07) Editors of Dissent Magazine
    Tributes to the activist, scholar, writer and president in the 1960s of Students for a Democratic Society, Todd Gitlin, who died in February 2022 in Dissent Magazine, for which he was a longstanding member of the editorial board. Various writers who were friends and colleagues discuss his career as an activist and social critic. Click on the link above to read the article.
  • Item
    HowardZinn.org
    (2021) Zinn, Howard
    A Web Site devoted to Howard Zinn. It includes biographical information, archival material from Zinn's papers a various repositories, articles he wrote, interviews with him, information about his many projects, etc. Click on the link above to visit the Web Site. For additional discussion about Zinn and his work, click on the link below.
  • Item
    For Historian Howard Zinn, Political Struggle Trumped All Private Concerns
    (Haaretz, 2012-12-17) Thrope, Samuel
    This article discusses the book, "Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left" by Martin Duberman. Zinn was a prominent historian in the 20th century. He was committed to an approach to history that tells the stories of the marginalized and oppressed people, which are overlooked in traditional history. In addition to Zinn's work being a critique of the American political and social structure, he was an engaged political activist. Click on the link above to read the article. For more information about Zinn and for samples of his work, click on the link to his Web Site below.
  • Item
    Stanley Aronowitz, longtime labor and civil rights activist, dies at 88
    (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 2021-08-21) Kampeas, Stanley
    "Stanley Aronowitz, a longtime activist and theorist who was hugely influential in the labor and civil rights movements, has died at 88." Click on the link above to access the rest of this biographical obituary.
  • Item
    Stanley Aronowitz, Labor Scholar and Activist, Dies at 88
    (The New York Times, 2021-08-23) Roberts, Sam
    "Professor Aronowitz, a social theorist who taught at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, called himself a “working-class intellectual.” He maintained that direct action was a more potent weapon for workers than collective bargaining or conventional politics." Click on the link above to read the rest of this biographical obituary.
  • Item
    Norman Lear’s Work Is Never Done: At UCLA Blueprint event, the iconic TV producer reflects on his career and shares his thoughts on modern America
    (UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, 2018-01-19) Van Dyke, Jonathan
    Norman Lear is best known for creating and producing the landmark television shows, "All in the Family," "Maude," "Good Times" and "The Jeffersons." These shows treated controversial topics such as race relations, politics and abortion. He has always been outspoken about his liberal political views, which he has expressed through philanthropy and political action. This web page is about a gathering at UCLA honoring Lear following the screening of the documentary, “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.” It includes an embedded Q & A with Norman Lear and the audience at the event. Click on the link above to read.
  • Item
    The End of Meat Is Here: If you care about the working poor, about racial justice, and about climate change, you have to stop eating animals.
    (The New York Times, 2020-05-21) Foer, Jonathan Safran
    An op-ed piece in the New York Times, in which author, Jonathan Safran Foer argues that the production of meat is a major contributing factor to climate change. This op-ed, which was written in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, argues further that the meat production industry is a significant culprit in the spread of the virus, disproportionately affecting low-income and minority workers. Click on the link to read the article.
  • Item
    Illness as Metaphor
    (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1978) Sontag, Susan
    In this short book (downloaded from the Internet Archive, Susan Sontag looks at how we conceptualize serious illnesses, particularly tuberculosis in the 19th century and cancer in the 20th century. "Illness as Metaphor" is a groundbreaking work that examines how we view and describe these illnesses in metaphorical terms than have significant adverse implications for the people suffering from serious illness. Click on the Files link on the lefthand side to read the book.
  • Item
    Making It
    (Tablet, 2019-01-16) Smith, Lee
    Written on the occasion of Norman Podhoretz's 89th birthday, this article discusses the political journey of the prominent social and literary critic, Norman Podhoretz. Podhoretz was the editor of Commentary Magazine, a Jewish magazine. The article how Podhoretz's politics evolved from leftist to neoconservative, and how he moved the magazine along the same political trajectory. Click on the link to read the article.
  • Item
    David Frum
    (2020) Frum, David
    The home page of David Frum. Currently a senior editor at the Atlantic Magazine, Frum has served as an assistant and speech writer for President George W. Bush, and as an advisor to Rudolph Giuliani's presidential campaigns. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, "TRUMPOCRACY: The Corruption of the American Republic." His home page includes many articles he has written, including some discussing the evolution in this thinking. Born in Canada, Frum maintains residences in both Washington DC and Ontario, Canada. Click on the link to visit his home page.
  • Item
    Elie Wiesel - Facts, Biography and Nobel Prize Lecture
    (nobelprize.org, 1986) Nobelprize.org
    The Web page devoted to Elie Weisel by the Nobel Prize Committee. It includes biographical information and a speech given by him upon acceptance of the award. Click on the link above to access the Web page,
  • Item
    Fiona Hill Just Mentioned ‘The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion.’ What Are They?
    (The Forward, 2019-11-21) Feldman, Ari
    This article discusses how the testimony of Fiona Hill before the US Congressional Impeachment Hearings into President Donald J. Trump, explicitly linked conspiracy theories about Ukraine's involvement in the US 2016 election with antisemitism. Hill was a former official in the National Security Council and director of issues relating to Europe and Russia. She stated that the antisemitism was particularly apparent in conspiracy theories involving George Soros. Hill testified that the "[t]his is the longest-running anti-Semitic trope that we have in history, and a trope against Mr. Soros was also created for political purposes, and this is the new Protocols of The Elders of Zion." Click on the link to read the article.
  • Item
    'Dripping with poison of antisemitism': the demonization of George Soros
    (The Guaridan, 2018-10-25) Wilson, Jason
    Written when Soros was one of the targets of mail bombs that were sent to a number of Democrats and progressives, this article looks at the mainstreaming of antisemitism. The author describes how antisemitism and antisemitic tropes, once restricted to extreme far right and white supremacist groups, have increasingly become part of the standard discourse of more mainstream right wing and conservative groups, including some politicians within the Republican Party. Click on the link to read the article.
  • Item
    The Socialist History That Explains Bernie Sanders’ Jewishness
    (The Forward, 2019-09-26) Meyers, Joshua
    The writer considers Bernie Sanders' brand of socialism in connection with his Judaism. Contrary to the views of some who have written about Sanders' connection to his Judaism, the writer argues that Sanders does indeed have a strong connection to his Judaism, arguing that in his view, class is the organizing principle--regardless of race, religion, ethnicity--in the struggle against oppression. He argues that skepticism about Sanders' Judaism "reflects a perverse form of gatekeeping, one that seeks to diminish the Jewish people." Click on the link to read the article.
  • Item
    Who Owns Anne Frank?
    (The New Yorker, 1997-09-28) Ozick, Cynthia
    In a provocative article in the New Yorker Magazine, Cynthia Ozick differentiates between the public version of Anne Frank and the actual Anne Frank who hid with her family from the Nazis in an attic in Amsterdam. Ozick argues that the public version of Anne Frank had been divorced from its historical context. The perceptive and talented teenaged girl, Ozick argues, was very conscious of being doomed to perish along with millions of her fellow Jews, simply because she was Jewish. Ozick claims that because what remains is a sentimentalized, universalized and commodified image of Anne Frank, history would have been better served if the diary had never been publicly viewed. Click on the link to read the article.
  • Item
    Paul Goodman Biography
    (Anarchist Archives, 2011) Fitzgerald, John
    A short biography of Paul Goodman, perhaps best known for his book, "Growing Up Absurd." Click on the link above to access the article.
  • Item
    Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society (Google Books Preview)
    (The New York Review of Books. Digital preview published by Google Books, 1956) Goodman, Paul
    Some selections from the most famous work by Paul Goodman. Click on the link above to access.
  • Item
    The Political Meaning of Some Recent Revisions of Freud
    (Politics. Published online by The Unz Review, 1945-07) Goodman, Paul
    In the following remarks I trust that I can keep differentiated those judgments that depend on general social and cultural awareness from those that re-quire special clinical experience, which I do not have. 1 am not a psychoanalyst. But the social role of analysis has recently come so much to the fore, and the new revisions of tlve Freudian doctrine are so politically tendentious— mostly to the right, but in one excellent case (Reich) to the left—that I feel the readers of this magazine should be informed of what is at stake.—P.G. Click on the link above to access the article. Use the "zoom" feature to make the print larger.