On The 50^thAnniversary Year Of The New York Review Of Books

From The Pen Of Peter Paul Markin

I have made no bones about my left-wing political preferences and my additional preference of looking at the world with historical materialist glasses first learned at the feet of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Nevertheless like any good politician, or knowledgeable person, one needs to look at sources from other traditions or perspectives hostile or indifferent to yours in order to round out your education. For example let’s say slogging through Das Capital is worthwhile to get a grip on the initial stages of capitalist development but you had better read Adam Smith’s Wealth Of Nations as well. And so on.

That brings me to the subject of this blurb- the 50^th anniversary year ofThe New York Review Of Book. Despite my distance from the editorial policies of the magazine, mostly lukewarm Kennedy- era retro Cold War liberalism I read this one from cover to cover (well, except the ads at the back). I have always found many interesting book reviews and social commentaries there over the approximately forty years I have been reading the magazine. What is great is that in any given issue you will find about five reviews that lead you to books you MUST read, either the book reviewed or something by that author. Even better the reviews are almost always NOT best- seller items that everybody in the small tight literati circle has already reviewed to infinity. Well-edited and well-written articles too ( I wish I had such editorial help). Kudos NYRB.