Michael Wreszin Papers

Michael Wreszin was born October 9, 1926 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. After serving in the Navy at the end of World War II, Wreszin enrolled in Syracuse University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. He earned a PhD in History from Brown University in 1961. Wreszin began teaching at Wayne State University and Brown University; he started his career at Queens College in 1965. He became a fixture on campus, where for more than 40 years he taught US History, specializing in post WWII history, black history, civil rights, McCarthyism, and radicalism in the United States. In addition to Queens College, Michael Wreszin also taught graduate courses at the CUNY Grad Center.

A lifelong activist and radical who studied the intellectuals of the movement, Wreszin wrote extensively for publications such as New Politics, The Nation, American Communist History, Dissent, and more. An incessant letter writer, Wreszin’s comments would often be seen in the New Yorker and New York Times. He would also publish biographies of radical, anti-authority individuals such as Oswald Garrison Villard: Pacifist At War (1965), The Superfluous Anarchist (1972 - biography of Albert Jay Nock), and his crowning achievement, A Rebel In Defense Of Tradition (1994 - biography of Dwight Macdonald).

An extensive researcher, Wreszin committed over a decade to his biography of Dwight Macdonald, leaving no rock unturned. He interviewed and became close with members of the New York Intellectuals including Norman Mailer, Mary McCarthy, Saul Bellow, and Macdonald’s first wife, Nancy Macdonald. He also researched and meticulously followed the career of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Along with teaching the history of radical activities, he lived what he preached, challenging authority out of both necessity and for enjoyment. Wreszin was arrested numerous times protesting the Vietnam War, the military industrial complex, Civil Rights and the shooting of Amadou Dialo.

Michael Wreszin died on August 12, 2012 in Manhattan at the age of 85.