Daniel Singer
Encyclopedia
Daniel Singer was a socialist writer and journalist. He was best known for his articles for The Nation
in the United States and for The Economist
in Britain, serving for decades as a European correspondent for each magazine.
Gore Vidal
described Singer as "one of the best, and certainly the sanest, interpreters of things European for American readers", with a "Balzacian eye for human detail." Mike Davis
labeled Singer "the left's most brilliant arsonist", with a talent for "set[ting] ablaze whole forests of desiccated cliches".
, in his parents' home. His father, Bernard Singer, was to become a well-known journalist,
but was impoverished at the time of Daniel's birth. His mother, Esther Singer, was a teacher, and the child of wealthy Jewish parents. Esther, a Marxist, interested both Daniel and a young Isaac Deutscher
in left-wing politics, and specifically the ideas of Marx and Rosa Luxemburg
. As Daniel aged, his father became more financially successful, and the family was able to move out of the ghetto. Esther quit her job, and Daniel attended a school where he was the only Jew in his class.
invaded Poland, Daniel and his sister and mother were staying in southern France. They went to Paris in an attempt to book passage to Warsaw
, but could not. Instead, after the occupation of Paris by the Germans, Daniel and his mother and sister left Paris. They went first to Anger where Daniel went to the Lycée David d'Anger, then to Toulouse (Lyce Lakanal) and after to Marseille (Lycée Thiers). In the beginning of August 1942 the French police came to arrest them; his sister jumped through the window from the second floor, broke her leg and was send to the hospital; Daniel was away in the countryside with some school friends and learned about his sister coming back home. With the help of the resistance, first Daniel and then his mother and sister escaped to Switzerland. Bernard Singer, meanwhile, was arrested by the Soviet Union, which had occupied eastern Poland under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
. Bernard was send to the gulag for two years and released when the USSR entered the war before being allowed to leave for London.
During the middle of the Second World War, Daniel studied philosophy in Geneva
. In 1944, he and the remainder of his family joined his father in London, where Daniel obtained his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of London
.
in 1948, with assistance from his old friend Isaac Deutscher, and for the New Statesman
in 1949. His work focused on Poland, France, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union. He remained on staff with The Economist for 19 years. In this period, he also provided radio and television commentary for the BBC
and the Canadian CBC
.
In 1956, Singer married Jeanne Kérel, a French doctoral student in economics in the University of Paris; with a British Council scholarship she spent a year in London in 1952-1953 at the London School of Economics
. After their wedding they lived during two years separated. Daniel moved to Paris in May 1958 when he was sent as"The Economist correspondent moved to Paris,'.
Singer spent the rest of his life living in Paris, reporting first for The Economist, and then, after 1970, for The Nation
, and became in 1980 the magazine's European correspondent. He wrote critically of Charles De Gaulle
, François Mitterrand
, and the French Communist Party
, but was enthusiastic about the events of May 1968.
The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation was established in Singer's name after his death. It offers an annual $2,500 prize for an essay in Singer's spirit.
, Trotskyism
, and various newer dissident schools of Marxism
, he defined himself ultimately as a Luxemburgist, a Communist ideology.
Singer opposed capitalism
, saying that he "could not resign himself to the idea that with the technological genius at our disposal we are unable to build a different world." He denied, however, that capitalism's doom is inevitable, writing "capitalism has within it the seeds of its own destruction, but only seeds... Capitalism will have to be pushed off the stage." Singer believed that this push "will require a revolution."
While Singer was an opponent of Stalinism
, and believed the French Communist Party in large part responsible for De Gaulle's success in taking power in 1958 and his failure to be overthrown in 1968, he had a nuanced view on the question. He wrote that, "while the totalitarian nature of Stalin's Russia is undeniable, I find the thesis of "totalitarian twins" both wrong and unproductive, and recognized the deep working-class implantation of the CP.
Singer retained an optimism about the prospects for socialism, writing shortly before his death:
in 1970, is an account of the student uprising and general strike that shook France and imperiled the Gaullist regime in the spring of 1968. Singer argues that the events of May '68, while not a revolution, even a failed one, had the potential to overturn a contradictory French society. However, he claims, they achieved no radical change because the genuine radicals on the non-Communist left had insufficient organization and influence, while the supposedly radical Communist Party, with sufficient strength to force fundamental change in the crisis, was not actually interested in doing so. According to Percy Brazil, this is the work which established Singer as "a major political writer."
The New Republic
wrote of Prelude to Revolution that "if Marx had been living in Paris during May 1968, he might have written this book."
. It was described by Foreign Affairs
as "a sharp and stimulating analysis", though a review in Russian Review, while praising its discussion of the USSR, notes that "less than a third" of the book is devoted to "a rather superficial analysis" of events in Poland.
in 1988. The book dissects the phenomenon of François Mitterrand
, who came into office as the first socialist president in French history with "the most radical program of any offered in the West by a prospective government in at least thirty years", but by the end of the 1980s had abandoned radicalism and turned the French Socialist Party back into a standard European social democratic party. Singer argued that the disappointment of Mitterrand for socialists demonstrated not that socialism is a futile project, but that Mitterrand had not really attempted it.
Barbara Ehrenreich
described the book as "magisterial in its historical sweep [and] fiercely democratic in its vision", providing "the thinking person's bridge to the 21st Century."
in 2005. It has an introduction by George Steiner
and a preface by Howard Zinn
. The title comes from a phrase Singer once used to describe himself, referring to his narrow escape from the Holocaust.
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
in the United States and for The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
in Britain, serving for decades as a European correspondent for each magazine.
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
described Singer as "one of the best, and certainly the sanest, interpreters of things European for American readers", with a "Balzacian eye for human detail." Mike Davis
Mike Davis (scholar)
Mike Davis is an American Marxist social commentator, urban theorist, historian, and political activist. He is best known for his investigations of power and social class in his native Southern California.-Life:...
labeled Singer "the left's most brilliant arsonist", with a talent for "set[ting] ablaze whole forests of desiccated cliches".
Early life
Singer was born in 1926 in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, in his parents' home. His father, Bernard Singer, was to become a well-known journalist,
but was impoverished at the time of Daniel's birth. His mother, Esther Singer, was a teacher, and the child of wealthy Jewish parents. Esther, a Marxist, interested both Daniel and a young Isaac Deutscher
Isaac Deutscher
Isaac Deutscher was a Polish-born Jewish Marxist writer, journalist and political activist who moved to the United Kingdom at the outbreak of World War II. He is best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin and as a commentator on Soviet affairs...
in left-wing politics, and specifically the ideas of Marx and Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
. As Daniel aged, his father became more financially successful, and the family was able to move out of the ghetto. Esther quit her job, and Daniel attended a school where he was the only Jew in his class.
Education and escape from Holocaust
In 1939, when Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invaded Poland, Daniel and his sister and mother were staying in southern France. They went to Paris in an attempt to book passage to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, but could not. Instead, after the occupation of Paris by the Germans, Daniel and his mother and sister left Paris. They went first to Anger where Daniel went to the Lycée David d'Anger, then to Toulouse (Lyce Lakanal) and after to Marseille (Lycée Thiers). In the beginning of August 1942 the French police came to arrest them; his sister jumped through the window from the second floor, broke her leg and was send to the hospital; Daniel was away in the countryside with some school friends and learned about his sister coming back home. With the help of the resistance, first Daniel and then his mother and sister escaped to Switzerland. Bernard Singer, meanwhile, was arrested by the Soviet Union, which had occupied eastern Poland under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
. Bernard was send to the gulag for two years and released when the USSR entered the war before being allowed to leave for London.
During the middle of the Second World War, Daniel studied philosophy in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. In 1944, he and the remainder of his family joined his father in London, where Daniel obtained his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
.
Journalistic career and marriage
Singer began working for The EconomistThe Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
in 1948, with assistance from his old friend Isaac Deutscher, and for the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
in 1949. His work focused on Poland, France, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union. He remained on staff with The Economist for 19 years. In this period, he also provided radio and television commentary for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and the Canadian CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
.
In 1956, Singer married Jeanne Kérel, a French doctoral student in economics in the University of Paris; with a British Council scholarship she spent a year in London in 1952-1953 at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
. After their wedding they lived during two years separated. Daniel moved to Paris in May 1958 when he was sent as"The Economist correspondent moved to Paris,'.
Singer spent the rest of his life living in Paris, reporting first for The Economist, and then, after 1970, for The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, and became in 1980 the magazine's European correspondent. He wrote critically of Charles De Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
, and the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
, but was enthusiastic about the events of May 1968.
Death
Singer died in 2000 of lung cancer. He requested that the announcement of his death be accompanied by a quotation from Rosa Luxemburg, still his political icon, shortly before her execution:Your order is built on sand. Tomorrow, the revolution will raise its head again, Proclaiming to your horror amidst a blaze of trumpets, "I was, I am, I always shall be."
The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation was established in Singer's name after his death. It offers an annual $2,500 prize for an essay in Singer's spirit.
Political views
Singer's writing was always deeply influenced by his interest in politics, and specifically the process of political change. Throughout his adult life, Singer was a socialist, but a critic of the Soviet Union. Influenced by anarchismAnarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, Trotskyism
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
, and various newer dissident schools of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, he defined himself ultimately as a Luxemburgist, a Communist ideology.
Singer opposed capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, saying that he "could not resign himself to the idea that with the technological genius at our disposal we are unable to build a different world." He denied, however, that capitalism's doom is inevitable, writing "capitalism has within it the seeds of its own destruction, but only seeds... Capitalism will have to be pushed off the stage." Singer believed that this push "will require a revolution."
While Singer was an opponent of Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, and believed the French Communist Party in large part responsible for De Gaulle's success in taking power in 1958 and his failure to be overthrown in 1968, he had a nuanced view on the question. He wrote that, "while the totalitarian nature of Stalin's Russia is undeniable, I find the thesis of "totalitarian twins" both wrong and unproductive, and recognized the deep working-class implantation of the CP.
Singer retained an optimism about the prospects for socialism, writing shortly before his death:
There is no certainty about the future. Humanity has the capability of destroying itself, and it may very well do so. The hope is with the younger generation. They will not be able to run away from the problems of the world the way our generation did and the next generation has. But our grandchildren will have to deal with the contradictions.
Prelude to Revolution (1970)
Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968, first published by Hill and WangHill and Wang
Hill & Wang is an American book publishing company focused on American history, world history, and politics. It is a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux....
in 1970, is an account of the student uprising and general strike that shook France and imperiled the Gaullist regime in the spring of 1968. Singer argues that the events of May '68, while not a revolution, even a failed one, had the potential to overturn a contradictory French society. However, he claims, they achieved no radical change because the genuine radicals on the non-Communist left had insufficient organization and influence, while the supposedly radical Communist Party, with sufficient strength to force fundamental change in the crisis, was not actually interested in doing so. According to Percy Brazil, this is the work which established Singer as "a major political writer."
The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
wrote of Prelude to Revolution that "if Marx had been living in Paris during May 1968, he might have written this book."
The Road to Gdansk (1981)
The Road to Gdansk, published by Monthly Review Press in 1981, is a collection of essays on Poland, the Soviet Union, and SolidaritySolidarity
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress...
. It was described by Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
as "a sharp and stimulating analysis", though a review in Russian Review, while praising its discussion of the USSR, notes that "less than a third" of the book is devoted to "a rather superficial analysis" of events in Poland.
Is Socialism Doomed? (1988)
Is Socialism Doomed? The Meaning of Mitterrand was published by Oxford University PressOxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
in 1988. The book dissects the phenomenon of François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
, who came into office as the first socialist president in French history with "the most radical program of any offered in the West by a prospective government in at least thirty years", but by the end of the 1980s had abandoned radicalism and turned the French Socialist Party back into a standard European social democratic party. Singer argued that the disappointment of Mitterrand for socialists demonstrated not that socialism is a futile project, but that Mitterrand had not really attempted it.
Whose Millennium? (1999)
Whose Millennium? Theirs or Ours? was published by Monthly Review Press in 1999. This book, described by Percy Brazil as Singer's "magnum opus", challenges the idea that "there is no alternative" to capitalism. Instead, Singer argues,We are at a moment, to borrow [Walt] Whitman's words, when society "is for a while between things ended and things begun," not because of some symbolic date on a calendar marking the turn of the millennium, but because the old order is a-dying, in so far as it can no longer provide answers corresponding to the social needs of our point of development, though it clings successfully to power, because there is no class, no social force ready to push it off the historical stage.
Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich
-Early life:Ehrenreich was born Barbara Alexander to Isabelle Oxley and Ben Howes Alexander in Butte, Montana, which she describes as then being "a bustling, brawling, blue collar mining town."...
described the book as "magisterial in its historical sweep [and] fiercely democratic in its vision", providing "the thinking person's bridge to the 21st Century."
Deserter from Death (2005)
Deserter from Death: Dispatches from Western Europe 1950-2000, is a posthumous collection of Singer's journalistic writing over the course of his life, published by Nation BooksThe Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
in 2005. It has an introduction by George Steiner
George Steiner
Francis George Steiner, FBA , is an influential European-born American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, translator, and educator. He has written extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the impact of the Holocaust...
and a preface by Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
. The title comes from a phrase Singer once used to describe himself, referring to his narrow escape from the Holocaust.