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Liberalism Under Fire: New York in the 1950s
A One-Day Conference, Hosted by the Herbert H. Lehman Suite, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University
April 6, 2001
In his 1958 speech at Columbia University, Senator Herbert H. Lehman declared that "so far as liberal and liberalism are concerned, the very present period is largely overshadowed by a pall of sterility, conformity, compromise and confusion. It is a dark period for liberalism and for America."
And what of the history of Lehman's home state, New York? Was the period as dark as Lehman believed? What precisely was the crisis of liberalism in the 1950's? And what critiques can we offer of that ideology and its practical consequences?
We wish to encourage a cross-disciplinary exploration of these questions at a one-day conference focusing on the history of New York, both City and State.
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