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Review Essays of Academic, Professional & Technical Books in the Humanities & Sciences

 

Radical Social History

THE EDUCATION OF A RELUCTANT RADICAL

Roman Childhood

Book 1

by Carl Marzani

Topical Books

$14.95, paper, 175 pages, some illustrations, index

Growing Up American

Book 2

by Carl Marzani

Topical Books

$14.95, paper, 214 pages, some illustrations, index

Spain, Munich, and Dying Empires

Book 3

by Carl Marzani

Topical Books

$14.95, paper, 281 pages, some illustrations, index

From Pentagon to Penitentiary

Book 4

by Carl Marzani

Topical Books

$14.95, paper, 278 pages, some illustrations, index

no ISBN not available on the internet

These memoirs with a mission to instill a sense of social political history give an introduction to the eventful life of Carl Marzani, born 1912 in Italy, came to the United States in 1924. He was graduated from Williams College, receiving a Moody Fellowship to Oxford. He taught economics at New York and Interamerican universities. He served in the Spanish Civil War, the US. Army, the OSS and the State Department. As an opponent of the Cold War, he was framed and jailed three years by the Truman Administration. In "Roman Childhood" we are introduced to his early life and formative experiences, tracing his roots in Rome before and after the first global war. Here begins the journey that took him from Rome to the United States. Here are the first glimmerings of his future radicalism in a youngster’s confrontation with Catholicism and the nascent fascism that would sweep Europe, battles with Balillas, and a first-hand account of the casual brutality of the Mussolini regime. Here, too, are lyrical accounts of summers at the seashore, companionship with urban and rural youths, and life and education in an extended, warm, and loving family.

A success story within the American Establishment, Marzani came to his radicalism reluctantly, impelled by world events and his American education. Roman Childhood recounts the full story of a remarkable life in politics, government, and labor, will fascinate all the admirers of Carl Marzani, a man standing firm in defense of democracy and opposition to tyranny. To his classmates, Carl was a compelling presence, noted for the quality of his mind and, later, for his obstinate socialism and resistance to McCarthyism.

In Book 2: Growing Up American explores the immigrant’s experience. Book 3: Spain, Munich, and Dying Empires covers three years—war in Spain to war in China, study at Oxford, and marriage to Edith Eisner, who introduces him to Marxism. They return to America via Syria, India, Laos, China, and Japan. The encounters with Gandhi, Nehru, Chinese generals, and the Japanese secret police make for fascinating reading Book 4: From Pentagon to Penitentiary deals with political life on New York’s Lower East Side and Marzani’s responsibilities and achievements with the Presentation Division of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. It tells the story of epochal achievements in the making of documentary films for organizations on the left, most notably Deadline for Action, and of the consequences. Having stirred the establishment, Marzani suffered the result. A man of large vision, Marzani would go on to a career`as writer, publisher, polemicist (taken up in the concluding volume, forthcoming). As memoir, history, and political analysis of the beginnings of the cold war, From Pentagon to Penitentiary makes fascinating reading.

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