This is the classic story of the life and times of I. F. “Izzy” Stone. Robert Cottrell weaves together material from interviews, letters, archival materials, and government documents, and Stone’s own writings to tell the tale of one of the most significant journalists, intellectuals, and political mavericks of the twentieth century. The story of I. F. Stone is the tale of the American left over the course of his lifetime, of liberal and radical ideals which carried such weight throughout the twentieth century, and of journalism of the politically committed variety. Now available in a handsome new Rutgers University Press Classic edition, it is an examination of the life and career of a gregarious yet frequently grumpy loner who became his nation’s foremost radical commentator provides a window through which to examine American radicalism, left-wing journalism, and the evolution of key strands of Western intellectual thought in the twentieth century.

Robert C. Cottrell has written over twenty books, including biographies of ACLU icon Roger Nash Baldwin and Negro League founder Rube Foster. He is the author most recently of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll: The Rise of America’s 1960s Counterculture. Cottrell, professor of history and American studies at California State University, Chico, has also taught in London; Puebla, Mexico; and Moscow, Russia, in the latter instance as a Distinguished Fulbright Chair. He is presently completing a new book, The American Left: From the Wobblies to Black Lives Matter.

— Noam Chomsky, MIT

— Booklist

— Maurice Isserman, If I Had a Hammer: The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left

— The New York Times Book Review

— Athan Theoharis, The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition

— The Washington Post

— Stephen J. Whitfield, Brandeis University

— Editor & Publisher

— Library Journal

— Choice

— Los Angeles Times

— Sydney Morning Herald

— Paul Berman, New York Times

— Journal of American Culture

— Journalism History

— Athan Theoharis, The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition

— Editor & Publisher

— Booklist

— The New York Times Book Review

— Maurice Isserman, If I Had a Hammer: The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left

— Library Journal

— Los Angeles Times

— Noam Chomsky, MIT

— Journal of American Culture

— Journalism History

— Stephen J. Whitfield, Brandeis University

— Sydney Morning Herald

— The Washington Post

— Paul Berman, New York Times

— Choice