Zellig Harris: From American Linguistics to Socialist Zionism

About this book

The intersecting worlds of Zellig Harris Noam Chomskys intellectual and political mentor. In 1995 Robert Barsky met with Noam Chomsky to discuss hiswork-in-progress Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent (MIT Press 1997). Chomsky told Barsky that he shouldfocus his attention instead on midcentury linguist and activist Zellig Harris who was Chomsky modestly insisted more interesting than Chomsky himself. Intrigued Barsky began to research Harris (19091992) and discovered thestory of a major figure in American intellectual life "sitting in a corner in the middle of the room"part of crucial twentieth-century conversations about language technology labor politics and Zionism. The intersecting worlds of Harriss intellectualand political activities were populated by such figures as Louis Brandeis Albert Einstein Franz Boas Nathan Glazer and Chomsky. Barsky describes Harriss work in language studies and his pioneering ideas about discourse analysis structural linguistics and information representation. He also discusses Harriss part in the pre-1948 Zionist movementwhen many Jews on the Left envisioned a socialist Palestine that would be a haven not only for persecuted Jews but also for disenfranchised Arabs and anyone seeking a sanctuary against oppressionand recounts Harriss debates on the subject with Brandeis Einstein and a large group of students involved with a Zionist organization called Avukah. And Barsky describes Harriss views on capitalism worker-owner relations and worker self-management the legacy ofwhich can be found in some of his students writings notably those of Seymour Melman. Barsky shows how Harris as mentor teacher and colleague powerfully influenced figures who came to dominate the twentieth centurys political discussion; thinkers as different as Noam Chomsky and Nathan Glazer.