Parts of a Past

Gilbert Harrison's memoir includes stories of his early family life in Los Angeles in the 1920's and 30's, an astonishing description of his being the first of two Americans in Nagasaki after the bomb dropped, and gripping accounts of his role in starting the American Veterans Committee, with its attendant battles with the Communist party. There was work for Eleanor Roosevelt, a stint as part of an ecumenical religious organization, and a brief tenure in the CIA. Of primary interest are his years as owner and editor of The New Republic magazine between 1954 and 1976, which put him at the center of a who's who of politics, JFK, Moe Udall, Eugene McCarthy, Adlai Stevenson, Henry Wallace, and many more.