Judy Kutulas

The Long War: The Intellectual People's Front and Anti-Stalinism, 1930-1940.

In the early 1930s, the American Communist Party attracted support from a wide range of liberal and radical intellectuals, partly in response to domestic politics, and also in opposition to the growing power of fascism abroad. The Long War, a social history of these intellectuals and their political institutions, tells the story of the rift that developed among the groups loosely organized under the umbrella of the Party-representing communist supporters of the Peoples Front and those who would become anti-Stalinists-and the evolution of that rift into a generational divide that would culminate in the liberal anti-communism of the post-World War II era. Judy Kutulas takes us into the debates and outright fights between and within the ranks of organizations such as the League of American Writers, the John Reed Clubs, the Committee for Cultural Freedom, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners. Showing how extremist views about the nature and value of communism triumphed over more moderate ones, she traces the transfer of the lefts leadership from one generation to the next. She describes how supporters of the Peoples Front were discredited by the time of the Nazi-Soviet Pact and how this opened the way for a new generation of leaders better known as the New York intellectuals. In this shift, Kutulas identifies the beginnings of the liberal anti-communism that would follow World War II. A book for students and scholars of the intersection of politics and culture, The Long War offers a new, informed perspective on the intellectual maneuvers of the American left of the 1930s and leads to a reinterpretation of the time and its complex legacy.

Dedicated followers of fashion: peacock fashion and the roots of the new American man, 1960–70

This article explores the peacock look in men’s fashion in the second half of the 1960s and the ways the style helped to reinvent the identities of white, middle-class, middle-age men. Peacock style shifted the emphasis from men’s careers to their self-constructed leisure identities, especially their sexuality. Peacock style also became part of what Thomas Frank characterizes as hip consumerism, that is, the desire to appear trendy and unique rather than to fit in.