Intellectuals and Communist Culture

This book investigates a central chapter in the history of 20th century intellectualism: the commitment to the communist ideal and the Soviet Union. Focusing on Argentina, whose communist party was among the most important in Latin America, Petra engages with the current literature on Western communism in order to conduct an exhaustive study of the intellectuals, cultural organizations, publications, and debates within Argentine communism in the decades following World War II. Based on rigorous archival research from diverse sources, Petra's book distances itself from existing teleological visions and institutional approaches to the communist world, offering instead a complex framework in which multiple contexts, scales, and actors frame the larger problem: the intellectual commitment to a political project that brooked no dissent. Intellectuals and Communist Culture also addresses the emergence of Peronism, a crucial movement in Argentine political life to this very day, thus offering an important chapter on Latin American political and intellectual history and an invaluable contribution to the global history of the international communist movement.

Overcomes the obedience/dissent dichotomy in understanding the relationship between intellectuals and political parties Proposes an innovative approach to Argentine political history and to the relationship between Peronism and communism Presents a wealth of rarely considered or previously unavailable historical sources

Autorentext

Adriana Petra holds a PhD in History, is Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina and Professor at the School of Humanities of the National University of San Martín, Argentina where she also heads the Centre for Latin American Studies.

Inhalt

1. Vanguardists, Reformists, Anti-Fascists.- 2. Intellectuals and Communist Culture in the Second Postwar Era.- 3. Anti-Imperialism and Peronism.- 4. Communists and Peace: Figures and Problems in a Global Movement.- 5. The Communist Decade: Héctor P. Agosti and the Debates of the 1950s.- 6. Gramsci and the New Left: The Morphology of an Intense Reception.<p