ABSTRACT

I said that the question we grappled with in the thirties, as a small marginal group, later became central and occupied governments and whole societies. In a parallel manner, we too moved out of our intellectual ghetto and became more worldly. In my own case, my trips abroad had, I now realize, a symbolic meaning. My first trips to Europe, made possible by the Rockefeller Foundation, brought me into contact not only with European writers but with American government officials and diplomats, and signaled the end of the isolation and feeling of purity we had enjoyed as a dedicated intellectual minority.