The Other American: The Untold Life of Michael Harrington.

• Author: Gallagher, Tom

The Other American: The Untold Life of Michael Harrington by Maurice Isserman Public Affairs. 400 pages. $28.50.

Michael Harrington held the slot of "America's socialist"--the only adherent of his viewpoint whom the American news media admitted into the national political debate for two decades. Probably best known for The Other America, his 1962 book widely credited with providing the intellectual impetus for Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," Harrington was the founder of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Maurice Isserman has written several books on twentieth century American leftwing political history. In this biography of Harrington, he supplements his usual encyclopedic research with a personal familiarity with both the man and the New Left. Isserman feels Harrington might have exerted a much greater influence on that movement if not for his relative silence on the Vietnam War during its early years: "In his...