Synopsis

This documentary tells the story of a hotbed of Jewish intellectualism, New York's City College c. 1930, and in particular follows the careers of four of the greatest minds to emerge from that environment. In following the divergent paths of Bell, Glazer, Howe, and Kristol, the film serves as a powerful record both of American intellectual history and of the peculiar role of a generation of Jewish thinkers in riding and shaping that history.

This documentary tells the story of a hotbed of Jewish intellectualism, New York's City College c. 1930, and in particular follows the careers of four of the greatest minds to emerge from that environment. In following the divergent paths of Bell, Glazer, Howe, and Kristol, the film serves as a powerful record both of American intellectual history and of the peculiar role of a generation of Jewish thinkers in riding and shaping that history.