For nearly three decades, the English political scientist Harold Laski was the gray eminence of American liberalism and its most influential Marxist public intellectual

For nearly three decades, the English political scientist Harold Laski was the gray eminence of American liberalism and the most influential Marxist public intellectual in American political life. As a fervent proponent of the New Deal in the 1930s, much of Laskis success stemmed from the fact that he offered answers when so many Americans had only questions. By the postwar years, however, his reputation was in decline and his well-understood influence left the Democratic Party vulnerable in the1948 elections. In Harold Laski and American Liberalism Best traces the trajectory of Laskis American career and accounts for its ultimate failure. He shows that the real tragedy for Laski was that he allowed his intellect to be captured and held captive by the Marxian dialectic, denying himself the use of his own reason despite that dialectics repeated failures.