Know Your Enemy

"Write Like a Man" (w/ Ronnie Grinberg)

Apr 17, 2024

Historian Ronnie Grinberg discusses her book on Jewish masculinity and the New York intellectuals, highlighting the impact on Cold War liberalism and neo-conservativism. The conversation explores gender, sexuality, and patriarchy in the intellectual landscape, shedding light on the scholars' deeper motivations. It delves into the development of a secular Jewish concept of masculinity and the challenges faced by women in intellectual circles.

01:16:40

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Episode guests

Ronnie Grinberg

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Intellectuals forged a masculine Jewish identity impacting Cold War ideologies.

Gender lens key to understanding New York Intellectuals' works and reactions.

Anti-feminist stance intertwines traditional values with gender anxieties.

Deep dives

Diana Trilling's Unappreciated Contributions to the New York Intellectual Scene

Diana Trilling was a significant presence in the New York intellectual scene, often overlooked for her contributions. Despite being dismissed by her male counterparts, she made valuable contributions through her incisive book reviews and writings. Her journey from helping her husband to establishing herself as a gifted writer highlights the challenges faced by women in the predominantly male literary world. Trilling's experiences shed light on the gender dynamics and biases prevalent in the intellectual circles of the time.

Introduction

2min

Discussion on Alcoves, Housekeeping, Patron Benefits, and Jewish Masculinity in New York Intellectuals

2min

Exploring Jewish Masculinity and Neo-Conservatism

8min

Exploring Jewish Identity and Masculinity Among New York Intellectuals

26min

Gender Dynamics in Literary Culture

12min

Exploring Masculinity and Gender Ideologies

24min

Exploring Evolution and Self-Criticism in the Face of Feminist Discourse

3min

Historian Ronnie Grinberg's new book Write Like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals couldn't be better "Know Your Enemy" fodder. (Main characters include: Midge Decter and Norman Podhoretz, Diana and Lionel Trilling, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, and Mary McCarthy!) These writers, Grinberg shows, built and sustained a novel, secular, Jewish, and masculine concept of the intellectual life, an ideology that would profoundly affected the development of Cold War liberalism, neo-conservativism, Zionism, and right-wing reaction against feminism, gay rights, and black power.

As we discovered in this conversation, it's impossible to make sense of the creative and scholarly contributions of the New York Intellectuals — good and bad — without gender as an essential lens. Moreover, Grinberg shows how scholars can easily misapprehend the deeper motivations for neoconservative reaction (among those such as Podhoretz and Decter) if they are not attentive to the centrality of gender, sexuality, and patriarchy in these thinkers' work.

Further Reading:

Ronnie Grinberg, Write Like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals (Mar 2024)

Sam Adler-Bell, "The New York Intellectuals Were a Boys' Club," Chronicle of Higher Education, Apr 10, 2024

Matthew Sitman, "Midge Decter to Howard Meyer, April 15, 1987," Friends and Enemies, Apr 8, 2024

B.D. McClay, "Of Course They Hated Her: The Uncomfortable Honesty of Mary McCarthy," Commonweal, Dec 18, 2017

William Barrett, The Truants: Adventures Among the Intellectuals (1982)

Mary McCarthy, The Group (1963)

Tess Slesinger, The Unpossessed (1934)

Norman Podhoretz, Breaking Ranks: A Political Memoir (1979)

Irving Howe, World of Our Fathers (1976)

Further Viewing:

D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus,"Town Bloody Hall" (1979)