Re: [Marxism] Tony Judt update

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Charles Glass writes that he is agnostic on Nasrallah's anti-semitism
> (Letters, 4 January). One is agnostic about matters that can't be
> proved or disproved such as the existence of God. It might more
> plausibly be suggested that Glass is indifferent to the existence of
> anti-semitism among Hizbullah's leaders.
>
> Eugene Goodheart
> Waltham, Massachusetts
> <http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n02/letters.html>

I took French Novel in Translation with Gene 
Goodheart at Bard College in 1962 or 1963. Really 
good class, especially on Proust. As befits the 
early 60s, he never had anything to say about 
politics. But this gives you some idea of where he has been:

http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/jul03/forum.php

Here is an example of a classroom experience that 
still resonates with me. I took a course called 
Contemporary Civilization with a distinguished 
American historian, Richard Hofstadter. The 
assignment for that morning was Marx?s The 
Communist Manifesto. At the time ­ it was in the 
prehistoric year 1950 ­ I thought of myself as a 
Marxist. Professor Hofstadter entered the 
classroom, and, without saying a word, he turned 
to the blackboard and wrote the following 
sentence: ?The history of all societies present 
and previously existing is a history of class 
cooperation.? I was a great admirer of Professor 
Hofstadter (he was a terrific teacher, and 
because of his class, I almost decided to change 
my concentration from English to history), but I 
couldn?t believe the mistake he made. The 
sentence of the Manifesto, as anyone who has ever 
read it knows, reads: ?The history of all 
societies present and previously existing is a 
history of class struggle.? So I raised my hand 
to correct him. Professor Hofstadter smiled and 
said: ?I know that, but,? addressing the class, 
he continued, ?I want you to tell me what?s wrong 
with saying that it is a history of class 
cooperation. Classes may be in conflict, but they 
also cooperate. One could write a history of the 
world from the perspective of cooperation as well as of conflict.?

I had been taught by my Marxist mentors to 
believe that conflict was the whole truth of 
class relations, and my first impulse was to 
resist what Professor Hofstadter was saying, but 
he was such an intelligent and persuasive person. 
I knew that it was to my intellectual advantage 
to listen and take seriously what he had to say, 
even if it rattled my confidence that I possessed 
the truth. Not because he was the teacher, but 
because of what he said and the persuasive way he 
said it. What he taught me was that there are 
different ways of seeing and understanding the 
world. It was a lasting antidote to my dogmatism, 
a decisive and liberalizing moment in my liberal education.


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