Historical research on the refugee intellectuals: Problems and prospects

Abstract

Over six decades have now passed since the first members in the great waves of Hitler-era European refugee intellectuals arrived in the United States. One would think that, given the astonishing list of distinguished and well-known figures that came to America in what Donald Fleming and Ber? nard Bailyn have dubbed "the intellectual migration"?Einstein, Gropius, Albers, Arendt, Morgenthau, Strauss, Lazarsfeld, Carnap, Erikson, Ein? stein, Szilard, Hindemith, Holborn, Panofsky, Auerbach, Neumann, Gerschenkron, Fromm, Horney, Marcuse, etc. etc.?and given the perspec? tive provided by the passage of time, this story would by now be one of the twice- and thrice-told tales in the intellectual history of twentieth-cen? tury America.1 Such, however, has not quite turned out to be the case, as one will readily discover by an inspection of any of the standard works in American intellectual and cultural history, where the intellectual migration as such will barely merit a passing mention.2 That is not to say that there is no interest in particular individuals, and in the sagas and triumphs of their individual lives. But the notion of the intellectual migration as a singular episode in American intellectual history with its own character, its own spe? cific gravity, its own physiognomy, its own internal consistency and unity, has not quite precipitated?at least not with enough authority to have found a settled and secure place for itself in the American historical lit? erature. It may yet. But there are a number of considerable obstacles in the way of that happening; and as time passes, one suspects that time may be on the obstacles' side.