Reseña de Choise

This is an interesting study of four scholars--Seymour Martin Lipset, C. Wright Mills, Sidney Lens, and Herbert Gutman. The link between the four, argues Coker (Belmont Univ.), is their disillusionment with the labor movement after WW II. All regarded organized labor as moving from its radical roots in the 1930s to a more pragmatic stance in the 1950s. With the exception of Lipset, who abandoned his radicalism early in his academic career, the others attempted to find new outlets for political activism. Coker asserts that Lens, Mills, and Gutman regarded the university, with its privileges and student population, as a good base to launch a "New Left." Mills, who died in 1962, did not see the advent of the radicalism of the late 1960s, and only Lens was an active participant in the antiwar movement. Coker's attempt to explain the "New Left" through these scholars is often convoluted and strained; particularly his account of Gutman, with his assertion that the former labor historian attempted a search "for power" by attempting to re-create a new radicalism through biased scholarship. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate students and faculty. D. R. Turner Davis and Elkins College