American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone

Popular Front columnist and New Deal propagandist, fearless opponent of McCarthyism and feared scourge of official liars, I. F. Stone (19071989) magnetic, witty, indefatigableleft a permanent mark on our politics and culture. A college dropout, he was already an influential newsman by the age of twenty-five, enjoying extraordinary access to key figures in Washington and New York. Guttenplan finds the key to Stones achievements throughout his singular careernot just in the celebrated I. F. Stones Weeklylay in the force and passion of his political commitments. Stones calm and forensic yet devastating reports on American politics and institutions sprang from a radical faith in the long-term prospects for American democracy.

In an era when the old radical questionsabout war, the economy, health care, and the right to dissentare suddenly new again, Guttenplans lively, provocative book makes clear why so many of Stones pronouncements have acquired the force of prophecy.