Discussed in this essay:

The Age of the Crisis of Man: Thought and Fiction in America, 1933–1973, by Mark Greif. Princeton University Press. 448 pages. $29.95.

The journal n+1 began publication in 2004. Its intention was immediately clear: to revive the little magazine as an intellectual presence in American culture. The midcentury stalwarts were long since moribund. Commentary was a right-wing rag. Dissent staggered on in obscurity. When Partisan Review folded its tent the year before, people were surprised to learn it still existed. More recent pretenders, like Lingua Franca, had come…