SOURCE: "A Reply," in South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 80, No. 2, Spring, 1981, pp. 139-42.

In the following essay, Schlesinger responds to Engelhardt's essay "Man in the Middle: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and Postwar American Liberalism" (see above), commenting that Engelhardt "is essentially fair-minded" but misinterprets Schlesinger's positions regarding ideology, the dangers of Communism in the United States, and the role of private property under social control.

It is a bit disconcerting for an historian to find himself the target of history. But, as we were long ago authoritatively informed, "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword"; so I accept the occupational risk and thank the South Atlantic Quarterly for the opportunity, before the sword finally falls, to comment on the comment.

Let me say at once that I do not envy anyone the awful task of reading a forty-year flow of words, some historical in purpose...