1st published in 1955, Part of Our Time consists of 10 novellas profiling individuals whose lives were transformed by the radical movements of the '30s. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Murray Kempton writes of people who "shared at one time or another the conviction that the most important thing in life was a remorseless effort to throw down the society which had raised & alienated most of them." Included are portraits of Alger Hiss & Whittaker Chambers, Walter Reuther, Lee Pressman, Paul Robeson, Edmund Wilson & James T. Farrell; the writers of the Hollywood left; as well as many now-forgotten labor leaders, politicians & mobsters--all of whom were caught up in what the author calls "the myth of the thirties."
"Part of Our Time is a striking piece of work," said The New Yorker. "Kempton is a journalist of formidable talent & versatility. He can be serious, he can be funny, he can be evocative. Every phase of life interests him, & he has a novelist's sense of character & change...He is a remarkably rewarding writer, & journalism & political criticism are lucky to have him."