Mary McCarthy

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Mary Gender, Politics, and the Postwar Intellectual is the first book to fully examine Mary McCarthy as a fiction writer and a cultural critic. With her sharp wit and critical eye, McCarthy offers a valuable perspective on the continuing debate over liberal values and the responsibility of the intellectual. As a Catholic woman from the Northwest, McCarthy stands on the periphery of the largely Jewish, male-dominated New York intellectual scene. This marginalized identity shapes her satiric vision of postwar American culture and makes her a consummate critic of liberalism from within. Drawing on unpublished materials from the Mary McCarthy archives, Mary Gender, Politics, and the Postwar Intellectual makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of one of America’s leading women intellectuals.