Dissertation Information for Susan Meyer ButlerNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 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. |
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