Like Socrates, the New York public intellectuals of the 1930s to 1980s disseminated radical ideas. Goffman (Imagining Each Other: Blacks and Jews in Recent Literature) and Morris (English, Purdue U.) introduce 16 essays (some reprinted from a special 2003 Shofer issue) that discuss the legacy and place in the protest tradition of this largely Jewish group of thinkers (which included Lionel Trilling, Irvine Howe, Suzanne Klingenstein) who influenced liberalism, neoconservatism, Alice Walker's feminism, even Edward Said's position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Goffman concludes that they prefigured's today's multicultural, global outlook. The volume includes questions for discussion. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)