William Barrett and Hilton Kramer - The 92nd Street Y, New York

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92NY Humanities Audio Collection

Our Country and Our Culture

William Barrett and Hilton Kramer

Dec 8, 1983


Walter Goodman, editor and critic for The New York Times, moderates a conversation with author and philosopher William Barrett and Hilton Kramer, the former chief art critic for The New York Times, about the state of American culture. This is the second part of a series, Our Country and Our Culture, inspired by a 1952 symposium of the same name published in the literary journal, Partisan Review. In each installment of the series, a writer who participated in the 1952 symposium returns to the subject in conversation with another contemporary cultural figure. Barrett, who participated in the original symposium, reflects on his contributions from 1952 and how the discussion came to be. Kramer takes a critical view of the political focus of that discussion, arguing that “there was nothing central to American cultural life, at that moment, 1952, ever mentioned by a virtually a single contributor to the Partisan Review symposium.” The discussion is followed with questions from the audience.

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