The Journeys of Fred Halliday
Linfield replies
Mike Davis’s letter represents two tendencies that, I believe, Fred Halliday spent much of his life opposing: one, the downgrading of important political differences to personal conflicts; and, two, the recourse to insult. Halliday openly addressed his differences with New Left Review in a lengthy 2005 interview. Readers of that interview, and of his work in general, can assess whether or not substantial political questions, especially about human rights, were at stake.
New Left Review has published, and continues to publish, some brilliant writers. But its analysis of, and stances on, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been atrocious—or, as Halliday put it, “objectively on the Right.”
Susie Linfield
New York City
Nov 19 2012 - 4:03pm










