Write like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals by Ronnie Grinberg

Description

"In the years following World War II, the New York intellectuals became some of the most renowned critics and writers in the country. Although mostly male and Jewish, this prominent group also included women and non-Jews. Yet all of its members embraced a secular Jewish machismo that became a defining characteristic of the contemporary experience. Write like a Man examines how the New York intellectuals shared a uniquely American conception of Jewish masculinity that prized verbal show more confrontation, polemical aggression, and an unflinching style of argumentation. Ronnie Grinberg paints illuminating portraits of figures such as Norman Mailer, Hannah Arendt, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Mary McCarthy, Norman Podhoretz, Midge Decter, and Irving Howe. She describes how their construction of Jewish masculinity helped to propel the American Jew from outsider to insider even as they clashed over its meaning in a deeply anxious project of self-definition. Along the way, Grinberg sheds light on their fraught encounters with the most contentious issues and ideas of the day, from student radicalism and the civil rights movement to feminism, Freudianism, and neoconservatism."-- show less

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suesbooks 778 reviews

even though i didn't read this as if i were reading an academic work, this was a real disappointment. it seems as if all data discovered by the author was presented, frequently not in any order or relevance. and so much repetition. some of the history was interesting, but there are so many ways to interpret the motives i am wary of so much. so glad to be through with it!

May 16, 2025

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