Gitlin, Todd (1943–)

A prominent progressive intellectual for many decades, Todd Gitlin has offered an influential and prolific blend of activism, scholarship, and social criticism. He has especially gained fame as a media analyst and as an internal critic of the American Left.

Born into a liberal Jewish family in New York City and educated at Harvard, Gitlin first attracted notice as a young founder and early president of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the flagship organization of the 1960s New Left. While he later grew disenchanted with the revolutionary radicalism of SDS, he continued to move in left-wing anti-war circles during the decade. In the 1970s, Gitlin commenced a successful career as a sociologist, focusing on media studies. One of his early books addressed the role of the mass media in the rise and fall of the New Left. Another work explored the insular world of television entertainment executives.

In contrast to the more familiar narrative of Cold War liberals who became neoconservatives, Gitlin was one of many sixties radicals who later embraced more liberal politics. His eloquent memoir-history, The Sixties, presented a critique of the possibilities and pitfalls of the New Left. This SDS-centered account of sixties radical politics and culture remains a significant contribution to the scholarship of the New Left, influencing pessimistic views of its legacy.

Continuing to write from a left-liberal perspective, Gitlin has targeted a number of shibboleths within his own political community. These include a reflexive support for identity politics and multiculturalism, as well as a tendency to cede the issue of patriotism to the political right. A persistent theme of his writing is the need for the Left to cease defining itself solely as a protector of individual and groups rights, or as a counterculture to middle-class society. Gitlin's preferred rhetorical style is the appeal to reason. He has encouraged progressives to focus on issues—such as economic justice, corporate power, and the promise of democracy—that can unite all Americans. At the same time, Gitlin has attacked the role of conservatives in fomenting the “culture wars.” His media criticism, in particular, has emphasized how a profit-driven industry has stifled dissent and perpetuated the political status quo, especially during the second Bush presidency.

Having previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and New York University, Gitlin recently joined Columbia University as a professor of [Page 622]journalism and sociology. He continues to write in progressive venues, such as Dissent and the webzine http://TPMCafe.com, as well as for scholarly journals. He has also published two novels and numerous poems.