Write like a man : Jewish masculinity and the New York intellectuals

Author/Creator:

Grinberg, Ronnie A., author

Publication/Creation:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2024]

Format:

Book

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

Write like a man : Jewish masculinity and the New York intellectuals / Ronnie A. Grinberg

Related/Included Titles:

Introduction --
My weapon is my pen : constructing secular Jewish masculinity --
"Crazy" and "genteel" : Di and Li Trilling and secular Jewish masculinity --
Jewish cold warriors and "mature" masculinity --
World of our fathers, world of our sons : Irving Howe and Jewish masculinity on the left --
"Lady" critics : women New York intellectuals and feminism --
Midge Decter : the "first lady of neoconservatism" --
"S'Sissy,' the most dreaded epithet of an American boyhood" : Norman Podhoretz and Jewish masculinity on the right --
Epilogue.

Subjects/Genre

Subjects:

Masculinity--Religious aspects--Judaism
Jewish critics--New York (State)--New York
Jewish men--New York (State)--New York
Jews--United States--Attitudes
Jews--United States--Intellectual life
Gender expression
Masculinities
New York (N.Y.)--Intellectual life

Description/Summary

Table of Contents:

Introduction -- ch. 1. My weapon is my pen : constructing secular Jewish masculinity -- ch. 2. "Crazy" and "genteel" : Di and Li Trilling and secular Jewish masculinity -- ch. 3. Jewish cold warriors and "mature" masculinity -- ch. 4. World of our fathers, world of our sons : Irving Howe and Jewish masculinity on the left -- ch. 5. "Lady" critics : women New York intellectuals and feminism -- ch. 6. Midge Decter : the "first lady of neoconservatism" -- ch. 7. "S'Sissy,' the most dreaded epithet of an American boyhood" : Norman Podhoretz and Jewish masculinity on the right -- Epilogue.

Bibliography:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-352) and index.

Summary:

"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 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."--

Language:

English

Physical Type/Description:

xvi, 367 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

9937907939002486

ISBN:

9780691193090
0691193096

OCLC Number:

1378710915

Barcode:

010003574590