Intellectual Family Values: William Phillips, Hannah Arendt and the Partisan Review

Author(s): Martin Jay

Source: Salmagundi, No. 143 (Summer 2004), pp. 43-55
Published by: Skidmore College
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40549569 .
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Force Fields
By Martin Jay
Hiolo by HidekiTemi

IntellectualFamilyValues: WilliamPhillips,
Hannah Arendtand thePartisanReview
W iththedeathonSeptember
12,2002ofWilliamPhillipsand
thesubsequentsuspensionof PartisanReview,thepublicationhe had
editedsinceitsfounding
in1934,anerainAmericanintellectual
lifecame
toa close.Thequintessential
"little
whose
circulation
engaged
magazine,"
neverpassed15,000,wasnolongerviableintoday' s cultural
market
place,
wherecutting-edge
ideasaremorelikelytobeexpressedinthespecialized
jargon of esotericacademicsthanthe conversational
prose of public
intellectuals.
The face-to-face
interaction
of friendsand former
friends,
oftenentangled
in websofpersonalintrigue,
has beenreplacedbya farof interlocutors
whomeetin cyberspaceor at conference
flungnetwork
hotelsrather
thaninthelivingroomsoftheirintimates.
Whatever
was left
ofthatmid-20th-century
of
the
mind
thatcametobe called"the
community
NewYorkintellectuals"
waslaidtorestwiththetwindeathsofPhillipsand
PR.
thejournal'slastissue,volumeLXX, number2, was
Fittingly,
toPhillips,manyfromthe
givenoverinlargemeasuretoelegiactributes
mostcelebrated
intellectuals
ofourday.Orperhaps,better
put,oftenofa

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44

MARTIN JAY

earlierday.ForitwasnosecretthatPR' s moment
hadlongsince
somewhat
as
the
when
it
to
be
outflanked
as
1960's,
began
passed,perhaps early
bytheNew Leftandculturally
bytheriseofpostmodernism.
politically
voicedan aginggeneration's
Fromthattimeon, it increasingly
disapits
Not
it
took
of
the
follies
of
successors.
surprisingly,
refugeinits
proval
lastyears,afterleavingthestillNew YorkishambitofRutgersina cloud
whoseautocratic
JohnSilber
ofacrimony,
atBostonUniversity,
president
of
From
the
it
his
being
avant-garde intellectual
gave
personalblessing.
forthosewhofeltlittle
intoa forum
lifeinthe1940'sand1950's,PR turned
as farto
withtheGeistofthenewZeit.Whileneverlurching
realaffinity
lifesuchas Commentary,
as otherorgansofNewYorkintellectual
theright
ofacademiathatcouldneatly,
itsharedwiththema disdainforthetrends
As
ifreductively,
be groupedundertherubricof"politicalcorrectness."
theendoftheroadturned
leftist
so oftenwasthecase withformer
militants,
scornforthevariousidolsthathad
outtobe a spleneticneo-conservative
replacedall theearliergodsthathadfailed.1Even Silbercameto underaboutkeepingthemagazinegoingthat"thegeneral
standwhenhethought
Thatwas theword
consensuswas thatPartisanReviewwas a reliquary.
morethanone personused."2
Thereis no reason,however,to dwellon thefinalyearsof an
forthevitalroleit
thatdeservesseriousrecognition
intellectual
enterprise
fail
to
earlier
Nor
can
one
so
ones.
acknowledgethe
playedduring many
madebyWilliamPhillipstoAmericanintellectual
positivecontributions
a majorworkof
Without
himselfeverproducing
lifein the20thcentury.
editorial
he
the
kind
of
guidanceformany
engaged
scholarship, provided
the
forfarlongerthanis normally
others
thatallowedthejournaltoprosper
ofitskind.Andas a modelofwhatfollowed,he was
case withenterprises
to his memorial
also enormously
influential.
As one of thecontributors
The
to
Morris
Dickstein,
it,
put "Try imagine NewRepublic,
symposium,
The New YorkReviewof Books,Salmagundi
, or The New Criterion,
as theyare,withouttheexampleof PartisanReviewand the
different
whofirstappearedin itspages."3
contributors
tothewaysinwhichPhillips
Therehavebeenmanytestimonies
bothbeforeand
lifeofhisfeisty
community,
presidedovertheintellectual
ofPR,PhilipRahv.4I'm notsure
after
hisbreakwiththeotherco-founder
I havemuchtoadd tothem,butperhapsone episodeis worthrecounting

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ForceFields

45

in my own fleetinginteraction
withthejournal.It concernsHannah
members
oftheNew Yorkintellectual
one ofthemostpowerful
Arendt,
withPhillipswerenotwithout
theirstrains.
Inwhat
world,whoserelations
I
contriban
follows,I wanttorevisitthecontroversy
surrounding essay
utedto PartisanReviewmorethana quartercentury
ago. In so doing,I
hopeto castsomelighton thewaysin whichPhillipsplayedhisroleas
middleman.
intellectual
a shortpiecein1971tothejournal
contributed
Havingpreviously
on"ThePoliticsofTerror" totheNewLeft,thatis,andnottothevariants
- I hadalreadyfaintly
later
ofterror
thatcameintoprominence
appeared
onPhillips'radar.In October,1974,heaskedmetoreviewa newbookby
forwriting
about
serveas a "springboard
Canovan,whichmight
Margaret
It was,in fact,thefirstsustainedbook-length
HannahArendtherself."5
ofArendt'
s oeuvre,andhavingbeenexposedonlytopartsofit,
treatment
I hadadmiredwhat
I wasanxioustoseehowitallcametogether.
Although
s ideasin one oftheearliest
I hadread,andinfacthaddrawnon Arendt'
I foundthe theoretical
written
about
Herbert
I
had
Marcuse,
pieces
Canovan'
s bookwas,however,
of
her
underpinnings positionperplexing.
inthecontext
of18th-century
Arendt
a disappointment.6
entirely
Situating
Germanroots
never
the
more
Canovan
proximate
probed
Republicanism,
NeitherJaspersnorHeidegger,forexample,meriteda
of herthought.
mention.
I
fromNazi Germany,
oftheintellectual
As a student
migration
Arendtin a Europeancontext.My only
ofsituating
sensedthenecessity
at the
withhercame,in fact,in 1971at a conference
personalencounter
New School on the themeof the intellectuallegacy of the Weimar
hadwritten
of
Arendt
herself
abouttheimportance
Republic.7Ironically,
in
1946
in
the
of
the
in
an
she
ExistenzPhilosophy
essay published
pages
to
PartisanReview} Usingthisessayas a jumpingoffpoint,I attempted
than"tough"
rather
showtherootsofherideasaboutpoliticsina "tender"
shehadabsorbedfromherGermanteachers,
versionoftheexistentialism
ofthepoliticalfrom
her
defense
of
the
relativeindependence
producing
Thiscategorization
constraints.
ethical,socialandphilosophical
putherin
Ernst
theuncomfortable
of
like
Carl
Schmitt
and
company figures
Jnger,
werefarmoredubiousthanhers,
whoseexplicitpoliticalcommitments
andI attempted
toheadofftheinevitable
accusationsofguiltbyassocia-

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46

MARTIN JAY

tion and acknowledge the strengthsof her position as well as the weaknesses.
Still, it would be fairto say thattheessay was moreof a critique
thanI had anticipatedwritingwhenacceptingtheassignment.The biteof
the essay had been sharpened by conversations I had had with very
different
criticsof Arendt,whose vehemencehad surprisedand, I guess,
emboldenedme. HerbertMarcuse fromtheleftand Isaiah Berlin fromthe
centerhad bothvoiced veryseriousreservationsabout Arendt's work,the
formerforher impoverishedreadingof Marx and disdain forFrankfurt
School CriticalTheory,the latterforherhostilityto Zionism and controversial claim in Eichmann in Jerusalem about the role of the Jewish
Councils in enabling theHolocaust.9
Whateverthestimulus,myinitialefforttostriketherightnotedid
notleave Phillipssatisfied.On June18th,1975,he wrotetome thatalthough
"muchofthepiece is ofcourseon a veryhighlevel . . .somehow thebalance
and tone are notright,"and invitedme to dinnerin New York to discuss
how to fix them.Late thatsummer,I spent a verycordial evening with
Phillips,his wifeEdna, and Steven Marcus and his wifeGertrudeLenzer,
in whichtheirobjections were thoroughlyaired. A second, morenuanced
buttheresponsewas thesame. "Your piece has given
versionwas written,
me moreagony thanany in years.As you can imagine,Steven and I have
talkedabout ita lot,"Phillips wroteon October 30th."It is difficultto sum
up quickly whatI feel. But I do feel thepiece isn't right.You have made
it a littlemorebalanced butit stillstrikesme as being quite one-sided for,
while you do acknowledge some of her intellectualassets and achievements,theemphasis of yourpiece is largelynegative."Then afterrepeating his qualms about mycritiqueof herlimitedreadingof Marx and antihistoricism,he added, "Again, as I said to you,since we've alreadyhad one
verydamningpiece about Hannah Arendt(incidentally,the only one, as
I recall) it would look as though we're out to destroy her. And this
impressionwould be particularlyreinforcedby the factthatall kinds of
people withbig reputationshave not been takendown in PR."
I was at thetimeonlydimlyaware of theearlier"damningpiece"
and its repercussions,but years laterwhen Phillips published his autobiography,A Partisan View,itbecame clear thatI had entereda minefield.
Afterdescribingtheirmeetingin the1940's at a partygiven by Schocken

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ForceFields

47

with
Books, whereshe worked,and detailingher initialdifficulties
personalhabits,andsomeofher
English,qualitiesofmind,old-fashioned
tohispersonalrelations
ideas("a coalitionofopposites"),Phillipsturned
ifnotintimate,
themas "warmand friendly
withher.He characterized
outtherole
us
acted
when
each
of
several
of
years,
exceptforoneinterlude
victim."10
ofthehurtandmisunderstood
LionelAbelhad
inJerusalem
In1963,whenEichmann
appeared,
be a farmore
which
turned
out
to
do
a
chance
to
the
review,
requested
"I feltitwas inmany
attackthanPhillipsremembers
strident
anticipating.
the
some
of
he
a
recalled,
thingshe said were
"though
ways put-down,"
Andtherewere
criticism.
fellintotheareaoflegitimate
trueandcertainly
In
sincebothArendtandAbel werefriends.
also personalconsiderations
Abel's own
solutions."11
situationslike thisthereare no satisfactory
ofsurprising
versionoftheepisodedeniesthelikelihood
Phillips.Recallher
earlierwork,
of
a
ingthathehadalreadypublished verysharpcritique
he insistedthat"whenthePartisanRevieweditorsaskedme to review
a
s EichmanninJerusalem,
Miss Arendt'
theymusthavebeenexpecting
of
Arendt."12
critical
have
been
would
that
very
piece
hisexpectations
Whatever
mayhavebeen,Phillipswas clearly
attack.He decidedtoshowthepiece
Abel's
of
the
vehemence
unnerved
by
andshewas upsetenoughtourgehim
toArendtbeforeitwas published,
to kill it. He thensoughtDwightMacdonald's advice,and the latter
concurredwithArendt,sendingto Phillipsa letterlater
surprisingly
of Arendt,in whichhe
in
Elizabeth
biography
Young-Bruehl's
printed
that
reported
[Shesaidthereviewshowed]"a lackofrespectformeas a person
andis muchtheworstthathashappened,
andas a seriouswriter,
- after
farworsethantheTimesreview
all,theydon'towemeany
She also askedmetotellyounottocall herorto
consideration."
moretodo with
writeher,thatshedoesn'twanttohaveanything
PR oryouorPhilip[Rahv].13
Therewas no turning
back,however,as Rahv,thenstillco-editingthe
to makeAbel
the
insisted
essaybe published.Whenattempts
magazine,
idea
of
hit
on
the
organizinga
temperhis criticismfailed,Phillips

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MARTIN JAY

48

symposium dealing with the essay in two subsequent issues, which

includedcommentariesbyMaryMcCarthy,Marie Syrkin,RobertLowell,
Harold Weisberg,Macdonald and Phillipshimself,withAbel responding.
The bitterness,however, was not assuaged by this forum,nor by a
subsequentpublic meeting,sponsored,itturnsout,by Dissent ratherthan
PR, in which Abel and some of his criticsslugged it out.14
As Phillipsrememberedit,"theonlytangibleresultof thewhole
controversywas thatHannah and I did not speak to each otherfora few
years.Hannah feltbetrayedby me. And thoughI triedto explain thatmy
conduct was the only properone foran editorof a magazine thatprided
itselfon being open to any serious view, and thatyou could notjust kill
thingsthathad been commissioned,I understoodher reaction."He then
ruefullyconcluded in retrospectthat"our littleworld was deficientin
friendshipand loyalty,and thatobjectivityoften has been a mask for
competitiveness,malice, and polemical zeal for banal evils."15 Altheexperienceleftdeep
it
was
clear
that
made
up,
thoughultimatelythey
scars on Phillips. In an open letterhe wroteto Mary McCarthyin 1964,he
reflectedon the sorryoutcome of the whole bitterdebate about Arendt's
book on Eichmann:

I am sorryto say, into

A historicaldisasterhas been transformed,
a journalisticoccasion, because people have been talkingnotso
much about the meaning of those awful events as about what
otherpeople were sayingabout them.And some people seemed
to thinkthatwhatwas being said was moreawfulthantheevents
themselves.16

remarktoJohnSilber,"Who does she

And yearslater,he could stillhuffily
thinkshe is? Aristotle?"17
Althoughmyown essay did notrevisitthedebateover Eichmann
in Jerusalem,which by thenhad played itselfout, it is clear thatit must
have seemed to Phillips like thereturnof therepressed.His response,as
in thecase of Abel's essay, was firstto tryto persuade me to moderatemy
critiqueand thento commissionanotheressay, as he put it in his letterof
October 30, 1975,"more favorableto Hannah Arendtalongside yours." I
answered in a long letterthreeweeks later,arguingabout some of the

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Force Fields

49

withtheplan
andtonalissues,andexpressing
substantive
myagreement
evenoffering
somepossiblecandidates.
to solicita rebuttal,
But thenon December4, 1975,HannahArendtsuddenlyand
diedofa heartattackat theage of 69. In January,
Phillips
unexpectedly
"I assume
takenforgranted:
whatI hadalso immediately
wrotetoconfirm
aboutpublishing
s deathhas led to secondthoughts
thatHannahArendt'
bothforyouand
taste
would
be
in
it
now.
verypoor
Obviously,
yourpiece
forus to publishat thistimea piece aboutHannahArendtas criticalas
yours.Perhapsa littlelaterwe couldputseveralpiecesabouther,one of
andan analysisof herwork."18
whichwouldbe yours,as botha tribute
"A littlelater,"however,turnedout to be a bit longerthan
aboutpublishing
to feelveryambivalent
expected,as Phillipscontinued
himas "one of
didhisstepsonlaterremember
thepaper.Notfornothing
Aftera yearpassed,I inquired
of theWorld."19
thetrulygreatWorriers
andhe respondedon
abouthowthingsweregoingwiththesymposium,
February10, 1977,"you will recall thatwe agreed it would not be
eitherforyouorforus toprintyourpieceas itwas. We also
appropriate
withanother
we shouldpublishyourpiece in conjunction
that
agreed
approach.I haven'tpursuedthisso far,butI'll
takinga moresympathetic
do thatnowifyouwantme to."Another
any
yearthenwentbywithout
mindful
of
and
interminable
the
Frustrated
wordofa resolution.
delay
by
into
newmaterialon Arendtthatwouldhave to be taken
themounting
accountinanyupdatedversionofthepaper,I wrotetoPhillipstellinghim
thatanotherjournal,AlvinGouldner'sTheoryand Society,would be
happytobringitoutifhedidn'twantit.On March10,1978,heresponded
withconsiderableirritation,
insistingthatit stillbelongedto Partisan
discusReview:"We haveinvesteda lotoftimein yourpiece,including
to
another
efforts
to
and
sionsateditorial
piece go alongwith
get
meetings
it a lotmoretimethananyoneelse couldhave."
tobe toolonga tale,
whatis alreadyprobably
To shorten
getting
whose
with
a rebuttal
in
1978
in
PR
later
theessaydidfinally
along
appear
chance
an
Leon
when
it
was
authorI onlylearned
Botstein,
by
published:
frommyhighschooldays(hisoldersisterbeinginmyclass at
old friend
s close
choicebecauseofArendt'
BronxScience).He was an appropriate
Botsteinhadjust assumed.
relationsto BardCollege,whosepresidency
Her secondhusbandHeinrichBlcherhad takenup a teachingposition

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50

MARTIN JAY

therein 1952 and herashes were buriedon its ground.Losing its original
title,"The Political Existentialismof Hannah Arendt,"my paper was
turnedintomerelyhalfof "Hannah Arendt:Opposing Views" and all my
notes were dropped.20Botstein and I went throughanotherround in a
subsequentissue, and thenthecontroversydied a naturaldeath.21This is
notthetimeto thrashout theissues dividingus again or replyto theother
critiquesmade by subsequentreadersof theessay, whichin factgenerated
more controversythanvirtuallyanythingI have written.22
Phillips had in factbeen rightthattheessay was a provocation,
and with hindsightand in the light of some of Arendt's posthumous
publications,I thinkI would modifya few of its formulations.But I also
can't suppressa certainfeelingof satisfactionat the factthatit contains
perhapsthefirstseriousattemptto situateArendtinthecontextof German
Existenzphilosophie, putting the spotlight on her profound debt to
Heidegger. Only laterwiththepublicationof Young-Bruehl's biography
was thefulldepthof
and thelettersbetweenArendtand herteacher/lover
theirbond, emotional as well as intellectual,revealed.23By now that
relationshiphas become itselfone of the most widely discussed in 20thcenturyphilosophywitheven a play dedicated to it called Hannah and
Martin by Kate Fodor, which was produced at the Epic Theater in New
York severalyearsago. Some ofthecommentaryhas, infact,amplifiedthe
qualms I expressedback intheseventies.24But at thetimethedepthof their
involvementwas unknown,and indeed had been deliberatelyoccluded
whenArendtcomposed herapologetic80thbirthdaytributetoHeidegger.25
Rather than dwell on my own attemptto come to grips with
Arendt's legacy, to which I have returnedon a numberof subsequent
occasions withconsiderable ambivalence,26I wantto focus on what this
littleepisode has to tell us about the way in which PR under Phillips
operated. What is obvious about the contextinto which my essay was
placed was thatitwas alreadyhighlychargedby prioreventsabout which
I had littleknowledge and less responsibility.Althoughall intellectual
fieldsare inevitablypre-structured,
thatof theNew York Intellectualswas
of previousconflicts,personal as well
with
the
residues
especially replete
as intellectual,whichmade itimpossibletoenterwithoutsettingoffhidden
landmines. Perhaps because it was located by and large outside of the
universitysystemin non-academicmagazines like PR, theinsecuritiesof

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ForceFields

51

a lesssettledexistenceintensified
therivalries
forprestige
andpowerthat
arepartofanyculturalfield.
In anycase,theresultswerebothpositiveandnegative.On the
that
side
positive oftheledgerwas thesensethatitall seriouslymattered,
andpositions
couldhaveanimpactontheworld,even
ideasandjudgments
if theyinitiallycirculatedonlywithina mandarinavant-garde
elite.A
in
PR
was
not
another
line
in
a cv, a
simply
career-building
publication
in
to
a
contribution "refereed
dutiful
journal"readonlybyprofessionals
in a general
a narrowly
definedfield.It was meantto be an intervention
debatethatresoundedoutsidethewalls of theacademy.Like thecelFrench
ebratedpetitesrevuesthatset thetonethroughout
20th-century
history La NouvelleRevueFranaise,Le TempsModernes,Tel Quela moment
whenthenowmuchabusednotion
PartisanReviewrepresented
hadnotyetlostitsluster.In France,ifRgis
oftheuniversalintellectual
thosejournalsthrived
Debrayis right,
duringwhathecalled"thepublishcycle" (1880ingcycle"(1920-1960),whichcame after"theuniversity
In
it
our
and
before
the
"media
context,
1930)
cycle"(1968-the
present).27
wouldbe perhapsmoreaccuratetosaythattheuniversity
cyclereallyonly
cameintoitsownaftertheSecondWorldWarand,unlikeinFrance,few
intellectuals
have had anyimpacton themassmedia.But theidea of a
ofintellecmoment
whenlittlemagazineswereintheforefront
transient
tuallifeholdstruehereas well.Thepassingofthatmoment
has,ofcourse,
lamentbythosewhosee academicization
beenthesubjectofconsiderable
as equivalentto theinevitable
dullingofthecriticalspirit.28
Butittoohaditsnegative
side,as aspectsoftheepisoderecounted
forajournailikePartisanReviewentailedassumabovesuggest.Writing
whichmeantthatcontributions
ingthebaggageof itsprevioushistory,
or
of
the
writer
butalso to a greater
notmerelytheopinions
represented
lesserdegreethegenerallineofthejournal.Ratherthanhavingsovereign
control
overhiswords,thecontributor
wasindangerofbecominga bitlike
intheHollywoodcinemaproduction
a scriptwriter
process.Italso meant
thatpersonalas well as substantive
considerations
could inflectthe
ofa piece.Ironically,
behindthefaadeofthepublicintellectual
reception
lurkedextremely
exigentpersonalinterests.
One ofthemoststriking
ofPhillips'autobiography
impressions
number
ofcelebrity
is theastonishing
intellectuals
heencountered
during

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52

MARTIN JAY

his career,rangingfromtheabidinggiantsof his age- Sartre,Camus,

- tothe
Orwell,Bellow,Lowell,Schapiro,and,ofcourse,Arendtherself
smallerfrywhosenameshavenowbeguntofade.Although
innumerable
in being
to denya smallfrissonof excitement
itwouldbe disingenuous
hard
it
is
also
from
that
of
a
few
headycompany,
degrees separation
only
result
that
can
a
kind
the
of
of
to avoidacknowledging danger
cronyism
andunforgivwiththeoftendemanding
anacquaintance
fromtoointimate
Arendt
When
showed
the
vita
of
donnas
contemplativa.
Phillips
ingprima
Abel's attackbeforeitwaspublishedandthenagonizedoverherdemand
it be rejected,he violatedthe normalrulesof disinterested
scholarly
decisionshowed"lackof
thathiscontrary
debate.Andwhenshelamented
especiallybecausethe
respectforheras a personandas a seriouswriter,"
it was clearthatforall hervaunted
journalowed her"consideration,"
of agonisticdiscoursein thepublicrealm,Arendtwas not
celebration
behind
winwithout
let
to
pullinga fewstrings
argument
prepared thebetter
thescene.
intherealm
It would,ofcourse,be navetobelievethatconflict
oftenpettyandselfofideasis anyless rivenwithpersonaldimensions,
cultureexacerserving,thanit is elsewhere,butNew Yorkintellectual
thatwas so mucha partof the
batedtheirimpact.The machoposturing
theheydayof Jackson
worldof abstractexpressionist
during
painting
cum politicalworldthat
Pollock was no less prevalentin the literary
in thepagesofthePartisanReview.As Phillipshimselfcameto
thrived
mannersweredevelwhenNew Yorkliterary
recognize,"In thethirties,
toimposehisviews
a
we
were
community,
everyone
trying
brawling
oped,
whichwas often
on everyoneelse by sheerforceof logic and rhetoric,
merciless.We had notyetlearnedtheacademicmode of ignoringor
to ideaswe foundrepugnant."29
accommodating
I'm notsureacademicculturealwayshoversthathigh
Although
whose
warfare
andinternecine
theintensely
abovethefray,
personalized
as horsde combatas
couldstillbe feltevenbya latecomer
repercussions
I myselfdidsetthehothousePartisanReviewworldapart.Thatworldis
clearlyon thewane,evenifmagazinesliketheone youarenowreading
But it wouldbe wrongto
carryon manyof itsmostlaudablefeatures.
and
itsfadingwiththatof intellectual
vigoritself.Partisanship
identify
nor
are
the
are
not
values,
protocolsof
inherently
opposing
scholarship

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ForceFields

53

academiclifenecessarily
inimicalto thoseof free-floating
intellectuals.
new
intellectual
The 21stcentury
modes
of
is,moreover,
busyinventing
fromthepast.Perhaps
lifethatmaywelleclipsethosewe haveinherited
via
the
whosedemocnow
be
a
intellectual
can
internet,
everyone
public
role playedso skillfully
ratization
of access makesthegate-keeper
by
theresult
Although
Phillipslesspossible,andperhapsevenunnecessary.
of unvetted
maywell be a debasementof standardsand a free-for-all
of
their
and
the
likelihood
oftheir
the
at
least
velocity
appearance
opinions,
willmaketheagonyofwaitingfor"truly
beingnolessquicklychallenged
oftheWorld"to makeup theirmindsa littleless severe.
greatWorriers

Notes
butPhillipshimselfresistedthis
1 Oftentheywereseenas havingembracedTrotskyism,
A PartisanView:Decades oftheLiteraryLife(New York,
label. See his autobiography,
1983),p. 45. His claimis givencredencebyhis surprising
usageofthelabel "Trotskyite,"
ists.
whichwas thetermofabusehurledbyStalinists
againstTrotsky
2 JohnSilber,citedin TheChronicleofHigherEducation(Wednesday,April16,2003).
3 MorrisDicksteinin PartisanReview,LXX, 2 (Spring,2003), p. 180.
and Partisans.
4 See, forexample,JamesGilbert,Writers
ofOctober11,1974.ThebookwasMargaret
5 WilliamPhillips,letter
Canovan,ThePolitical
ofHannahArendt(New York,1974).
Thought
HannahArendt:A Reinterpretation
6 A latereffort,
ofherPoliticalThought
(Cambridge,
1992),was muchmoresuccessful.
7 Manyofthepapers,including
myown,appearedinSocialResearch,39/2ina specialissue
on mypanel,surelytheoddest
servedas a commentator
1919-1932.
Arendt
calledGermany,
rolereversalin myacademiccareer.
PartisanReview,13, 1 (Winter,1946).
"Whatis ExistenzPhilosophy,"
8 Arendt,
ofwhatlatercametobecalledtheFrankfurt
andmembers
9 Theantagonism
betweenArendt
School beganas earlyas 1929and TheodorW. Adorno's critiqueof a paperby herthen
HannahArendt:For
husbandGnterStern.See thediscussioninElisabethYoung-Bruehl,
LoveoftheWorld(New Haven,1982),p. 80. Itwasdeepenedinlateryearsbybitter
disputes
overthelegacyofWalterBenjaminandthepoliticsof Heidegger.Forrecentcomparative

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MARTIN JAY

54

assessmentsof Arendtand Adomo,whichgets beyondthe pettinessof theirpersonal

andJuliaSchulzeWessel,Arendtand Adorno
see DirkAuer,LarsRensmann
interactions,
inMichaelIgnatieff,
is elaborated
Isaiah Berlin:A Life
(Frankfurt,
2003). Berlin'shostility
themostoverrated
bookofthe
(New York,1998),p. 253. He calledTheHumanCondition
7, 1977,p. 72).
pastseventy-five
years(citedinNewsweek,
February
10 Phillips,A PartisanView,p. 108.
11 bid
12 LionelAbel,TheIntellectual
Follies:A MemoiroftheLiterary
Venture
inNewYorkand
Paris (New York,1984),p. 274-275(emphasisin original).
HannahArendt,
toPhillips,Young-Bruehl's
13 CitedinYoung-Bruehl,
p. 359. According
fullnorcorrect"
was"neither
accountoftheincident
(APartisanView,p. 109),buthedoesn't
fromMacDonald.Abelalso hadqualmsaboutherversionoftheevents(The
denythisletter
ntellectual
Follies,p. 277-278).
ofthemeeting
canbe
HannahArendt,
14 Young-Bruehl,
p. 360. IrvingHowe's recollection
foundin PartisanReview,XXXI, 2 (Spring,1964),p. 260. He deniestheclaimby Mary
thattheopponents
"shouteddown"eachother.
McCarthy
15 Phillips,A PartisanView,p. 110.
PartisanReview,XXXI, 2 (Sping,1964),p. 278.
16 Phillipsletterto MaryMcCarthy,
toWilliamPhillips,"PartisanReview,LXX, 2 (Spring,2003), p. 221.
17 Silber,"Tributes
18 LetterfromWilliamPhillips,January
29, 1976.
toWilliamPhillips,"
PartisanReview,LXX,2(Spring,2003),
19 AllenKurzweil,"Tributes
p. 198.
withthenotesandoriginal
20 PartisanReview,XLV, 3 (1978).My essaywas republished
Exiles: Essayson theIntellectual
titlein Permanent
fromGermanytoAmerica
Migration
(New York,1985).
21 PartisanReview,XLVI, 2 (1979),followedbya translated
poembyLudwigGrevesent
to thejournalbyMaryMcCarthy.
Justiceand
22 See, forexample,thecritiquesbyMarizioPasserind' Entreves,
Modernity,
andHeidegger:TheFateofthe
(Milan,1990),p. 122-177; Dana R. Villa,Arendt
Community
Political(Princeton,
1996),p. 155-156.
in itsownright,
23 Forone attempt,
controversial
to makesenseoftheirrelationship,
see
HannahArendt-Martin
ElzbietaEttinger,
Heidegger(New Haven,1995).

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Force Fields

55

24 The mostextensiveexpressionof thesequalms can be foundin RichardWolin,

Heidegger'sChildren:HannahArendt,Karl Lowith,Hans Jonas,and HerbertMarcuse
(Princeton,
2001).
"MartinHeideggerat80,"NewYorkReviewofBooks,17,6 (October,1971); the
25 Arendt,
originalappearedtwoyearsearlierinMerkur.
26 See, forexample,"WomeninDarkTimes:AgnesHellerandHannahArendt"
and'"The
AestheticIdeology'as Ideology:Or WhatDoes itMean to Aestheticize
Politics?,"Force
Fields:Between
Intellectual
andCulturalCritique
(NewYork,1993),and"Afterword:
History
on a Conference
ThatIs Now History,"
in HannahArendtand the
Reflective
Judgments
MeaningofPolitics,eds. CraigCalhounandJohnMcGowan(Minneapolis,1997).
27 RgisDebray,Teachers,Writers,
trans.David Macey(London,1981).
Celebrities,
TheLastIntellectuals:
28 See, forexample,RussellJacoby,
AmericanCultureintheAgeof
Academe(New York,1987).
29 Phillips,A PartisanView,p. 298.

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