[Much] of what was fresh in American writing after the war came down in the fertile precipitate of ideas and attitudes released into [writers' and intellectuals'] thought by the chemistry of socialism on the wane. (p. 4)

It was in the post-war climate of stalemate and reassessment that Lionel Trilling came to prominence as a spokesman for ambivalence, moral realism (that is, the acceptance of "good-and-evil"), ideas in modulation, and the tragic view of life. He emerged in the forties as a pivotal figure among the New York intellectuals. (p. 8)

The Middle of the Journey, in its muted way, is … an account of spiritual death and rebirth, and the cycle of depression and revival in general is etched deeply into the larger movement of Trilling's work…. [The] entire emotional vista opened up by both psychoanalysis and modern literature was [extremely important] to Trilling. Trilling was aware of the precedents...