A Political Education: Coming of Age in Paris and New York

Andre Schiffrin was born in Paris in 1935 and on his fifth birthday fled the Nazi-occupied city for America. He would later enter the publishing industry, and ultimately became head of Pantheon and then in 1992 founder of The New Press. A Political Education mostly covers Schiffrin's early life upon arrival in New York City, and is an excellent picture of the left-wing intellectual community in 1940s and 1950s NYC. Most interesting is how important it was to Schiffrin’s and his family’s identity to have come from a French culture where intellectuals were at the top of the social hierarchy, “and therefore there was never any question of our feeling underprivileged.” This is an element of the social structure that for better or worse is nearly gone today.