For over fifty years, from the 1940s to the 1990s, Irving Howe was a seminal, if controversial figure in American intellectual life, writing about politics, literature, and Jews with the productivity of a major industry. His influence extended to American literature (his critical writings included studies of William Faulkner and Sherwood Anderson), Yiddish culture (he coedited several major anthologies of Yiddish literature in translation), the history of American Jewry (he is best known for his prize-winning history of American Jewish immigration, "World of Our Father"), left-wing politics (a socialist from his high school years on, he founded and was longtime editor of the democratic socialist magazine "Dissent"), and the history of New York cultural and literary life, in which he was an outspoken participant. Through a clear, eloquent, and forcefully argued study of Howe's politics, writings, and thought, Edward Alexander constructs a sympathetic, yet critical intellectual biography of this complex individual.