Dec. 13, 1970
Dear Mr. Wolff,
Your letter
of Dec. 8 is in hand. If you find
yourself startled to receive kind words from the Right, you can imagine my own
response to the fact that my book has been viciously attacked in the
conservative press (National Review, New Guard, Triumph) and generally well
received by the Left. Actually, I had somewhat
anticipated this; the ms. was bought by a New Left editor after it had been
given a cool reception at some of the more conservative publishing houses. It’s fairly indicative of the re-adjustment
in political thinking that has been going on over the past two years or so.
By now you
must have seen the Widmer review of both our books, along with Guerin’s
ANARCHISM in the Nov. 16th Nation. Their new literary editor, Emile Capouya, is
very sympathetic to libertarian ideas and this was apparently his inaugural feature. The Guerin book, is, in my estimation, the
best short comprehensive history of the subject available.
I’ve done a
brief review of your book for the Libertarian Forum, a bi-weekly
newsletter, and I’ll send you a copy when it comes out in a few weeks.
I’ll also
keep you posted on the progress of my course at the New School. The students who sign up will probably be a
mixture of Randian capitalist types and Left Wing communalists; I’m sure to be
attacked by the former for “selling out to the commies” and by the Leftists for
advocating “greed” and “exploitation.”
This exchange usually takes place at every Left-Right conference I’ve
been to. If Nixon knew the truth about
the so-called radical movement, he’d be sleeping much more soundly. Fortunately, he doesn’t.
Best
Regards,
Jerome Tuccille
4
Windsor Terrace
White
Plains, N.Y. 10601
Despite the tensions caued by the war and the Nixon presidency and the Civil Rights Movement, those were more civil times.
4 comments:
Excellent post as was the last one.
Why was that civility which you note lost?
Bonds of respect can form around shared political opinions and around certain theoretical interests and skills (as seems to be the case with Professor Tuccille) and both seem entirely valid to me.
Someone like you (Professor Wolff) probably has more in common with someone like Professor Tuccille (who has read and understood your book as well as, I imagine, most of the philosophical literature on left and right libertarianism) than with a ultra leftist 17 year kid for whom libertarianism means throwing molotov cocktails at police cars.
It was not as amusing as I hoped but it was interesting nonetheless.
Thanks for that.
THAT Anonymous
Among Rothbard's followers, Ronald Hamowy thought highly of In Defense of Anarchism and assigned the book in his classes at the University of Alberta.
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