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Dissertation Information for Susan Meyer Butler

NAME:
- Susan Meyer Butler

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1995)

ADVISORS:
- Bruce Schulman
- Robert Dallek

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Robert Wohl
- Martha Banta

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Portrait of an intellectual as a young woman: Mary McCarthy, the early years

Abstract: Mary McCarthy made a profound impact on the understanding of American political culture. She was a critic of the Great American Middle, standing firmly and defiantly to its left side. Repeatedly she reminded her readers to keep their minds open and alert; to not be taken in by political ideology, no matter its origins; and to preserve their rights for independent thought and action, even if these went against the grain. This study demonstrates that Mary McCarthy acquired and shaped her intellectual perspective during the first three decades of her life. It is driven by the belief that to fully understand the subtlety and dynamics of McCarthy's commentary on American political culture, one must firmly grasp those ingredients that formed her intellectual perspective. These factors began at childhood, particularly from the experience of becoming orphaned at age six; continued in her education, one dominated by expensive private, all girls' schools; and gained a voice within the debates among radical and liberal intellectuals during eras of the Great Depression and the Second World War. Family and teachers, friends and enemies, lovers and husbands all contributed to McCarthy's initiation as an intellectual; historical events caught her interest and tested her ideas. Toward the end of her developmental years, Mary McCarthy realized that she had become a "revolutionary thinker of the pure, uncompromising strain." And that never changed.

Portrait of an Intellectual as a Young Woman; Mary McCarthy--The Early Years evaluates this process, offering a new approach to the intellectual development of this woman. This approach is one of a historian interested equally in the life and intellectual development of Mary McCarthy and in the events and ideas that have shaped American political culture. This study unites these two interests, providing a profile that is, at long last, complete: Mary McCarthy is revealed as a person, as a writer, and as an individual who responded intellectually to particular historical events of the mid-twentieth century.

MPACT Scores for Susan Meyer Butler

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2009-01-25 11:46:38

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Students under Susan Meyer Butler

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None