A New Life: Political Context
Claims were made by many that the professors were dismissed because of their political leanings, and President Strand supported these claims. These dismissals sparked an overflow of communication from the community, and the nation. Some condemned Strand for his actions, others defended him. In the midst of the Red Scare following WWII, freedom of every kind was the topic of choice, especially in the university circle. A discussion of academic freedom circulated heavily, and had a great impact on the two OSC professors. To what extent does a professor's political views impact his professional career? Read the articles and statements, and decide for yourself!
Our goal here is to present you with enough information to understand the context in which Bernard Malamud wrote his novel, A New Life. National context is important, but so is the environment of the campus he entered into. Malamud joined the OSC staff in the fall of 1949, a few short months after the departure of these two professors. We want to give you, the user, a sense of what Malamud was hearing as he strolled about campus, and as he interacted with faculty and students alike.
We won't dare to presume that certain people he encountered during his time in Corvallis show up as characters in A New Life. However, after perusing all we've gathered for you, you will hopefully come away understanding a bit of the influence Corvallis and OSC had on the novel. For example, you might notice some similarities between Ralph Spitzer and the fictional Leo Duffy... but we don't want to give anything away.
Throughout the Political Context chapter of the "Malamud at Oregon State" book, you'll find a myriad of information. We start you off with a political timeline, so you can get the gist of what the nation looks like in this time period, both nationally and locally. Next, we take you over to nationwide reactions to the dismissal of the professors, conveniently organized within a map so as to determine geographical responses. We'll hear from our dear friend and staunch advocate for Ralph Spitzer, Dr. Linus Pauling. We'll take you on a journey through the different organizations Spitzer and Pauling appealed to, although success was limited.
It doesn't stop there. From a nationwide response, we'll narrow it down into a more localized reaction. Statements from President Strand, and Professors LaVallee and Spitzer (those two loved their joint statements) will follow. You'll also find a sampling of newspaper articles from 1949, filled to the brim with defenses and attacks on both the professors, and President Strand. Articles, editorials, letters to the editor... you name it, you'll find it. We'll follow that up with excerpts from Malamud's novel, A New Life, with a few annotations about the content and context of the writing.
To top it all off, we've provided a couple of in-depth articles about the whole case, should you be so inclined to investigate the case further.
Our original plan for this page was to have the full "tree" visualization, so you, the user, could navigate this page and its many subcategories at your leisure. However, due to limitations within the structure of Scalar itself, this is not available for us to host on this page. But have no fear, you can still see the full pathway merely by following the instructions below.
TO SEE THE FULL PATHWAY:
1. Select the global icon in the top left corner
2. Select "Visualizations," then "Path"
3. From the first drop down menu, select "Current Page"
4. From the second drop down menu. select "Parents and Children"
5. From the third drop down menu, select "Tree Format"
6. This will bring you to the full visualization
Well? What are you waiting for? Get going!
(click below to start yourself on this wonderful journey)
