The Literary Origins of Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s Political Imagination

FAIN: FT-248846-16

Yoav Fromer, PhD
Tel Aviv University (Tel Aviv 69373 Israel)

Research and writing on the literary influences on Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's political imagination and rhetoric.

This project seeks to explore the manner through which literature shaped some of Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s most salient policy initiatives and legislative proposals. In his four decades in public office, Senator Moynihan championed an array of issues including welfare reform, poverty eradication, foreign policy and government secrecy. But behind many of his notable achievements (such as the Moynihan Report and his opposition to the UN resolution equating Zionism with racism) lay a subtle – and entirely overlooked – literary inspiration. This project aims to highlight the counterintuitive correlation between the particular fiction that Moynihan read and the actual politics he pursued in order to demonstrate how literature helped frame his distinct political imagination and breed some of his key initiatives. By revealing the literary origins of Moynihan’s political vision, I wish to illuminate the broader import of the humanities to sustaining a healthy and vibrant democratic society.