ABSTRACT
The continuing Moscow Trials and the Spanish Civil War diverted intellectuals' attention from cultural issues to political ones. American intellectuals found an outlet for their political commitment when many of them joined the International Brigades to fight with the loyalist troops against the fascists in Spain. The Moscow Trials made it clear that any revolution could be betrayed by the Marxist government that emerged from it. The trials played a major role in shaping James T. Farrell's political and literary thought. He began 1937 by publishing a very favorable review of Max Shachtman's Behind the Moscow Trials. Farrell devoted a significant amount of time in early spring 1937 to studying the works of Trotsky and the reports of the Moscow Trials. But unlike many others working for the committee, Farrell did not become a convert to Trotsky's thought.
