The Romance of American Communism

The Romance of American Communism PDF Author: Vivian Gornick
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 178873551X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
“Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class.” So begins Vivian Gornick’s exploration of how the world of socialists, communists, and progressives in the 1940s and 1950s created a rich, diverse world where ordinary men and women felt their lives connected to a larger human project. Now back in print after its initial publication in 1977 and with a new introduction by the author, The Romance of American Communism is a landmark work of new journalism, profiling American Communist Party members and fellow travelers as they joined the Party, lived within its orbit, and left in disillusionment and disappointment as Stalin’s crimes became public. From the immigrant Jewish enclaves of the Bronx and Brooklyn and the docks of Puget Sound to the mining towns of Kentucky and the suburbs of Cleveland, over a million Americans found a sense of belonging and an expanded sense of self through collective struggle. They also found social isolation, blacklisting, imprisonment, and shattered hopes. This is their story--an indisputably American story.

The Romance of American Communism

The Romance of American Communism PDF Author: Vivian Gornick
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 178873551X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
“Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class.” So begins Vivian Gornick’s exploration of how the world of socialists, communists, and progressives in the 1940s and 1950s created a rich, diverse world where ordinary men and women felt their lives connected to a larger human project. Now back in print after its initial publication in 1977 and with a new introduction by the author, The Romance of American Communism is a landmark work of new journalism, profiling American Communist Party members and fellow travelers as they joined the Party, lived within its orbit, and left in disillusionment and disappointment as Stalin’s crimes became public. From the immigrant Jewish enclaves of the Bronx and Brooklyn and the docks of Puget Sound to the mining towns of Kentucky and the suburbs of Cleveland, over a million Americans found a sense of belonging and an expanded sense of self through collective struggle. They also found social isolation, blacklisting, imprisonment, and shattered hopes. This is their story--an indisputably American story.

American Communism in Crisis, 1943-1957

American Communism in Crisis, 1943-1957 PDF Author: Joseph Robert Starobin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520027961
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description


Red Chicago

Red Chicago PDF Author: Randi Storch
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252032063
Category : Communism
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Realities of the street-level American Communist experience during the worst years of the Depression "Red Chicago" is a social history of American Communism set within the context of Chicago's neighborhoods, industries, and radical traditions. Using local party records, oral histories, union records, party newspapers, and government documents, Randi Storch fills the gap between Leninist principles and the day-to-day activities of Chicago's rank-and-file Communists. Uncovering rich new evidence from Moscow's former party archive, Storch argues that although the American Communist Party was an international organization strongly influenced by the Soviet Union, at the city level it was a more vibrant and flexible organization responsible to local needs and concerns. Thus, while working for a better welfare system, fairer unions, and racial equality, Chicago's Communists created a movement that at times departed from international party leaders' intentions. By focusing on the experience of Chicago's Communists, who included a large working-class, African American, and ethnic population, this study reexamines party members' actions as an integral part of the communities in which they lived and the industries where they worked. "A volume in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilentz"

The Secret World of American Communism

The Secret World of American Communism PDF Author: Harvey Klehr
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300137834
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
The hidden world of American communism can now be examined with the help of documents from the recently opened archives of the former Soviet Union. Interweaving narrative and documents, the authors of this book present a convincing new picture of the Communist Part of the the United States of America (CPUSA), providing proof that it was involved in espionage and other subversive activitives. 16 illustrations.

The Roots of American Communism

The Roots of American Communism PDF Author:
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412838801
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 542

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Book Description
"In his special, prescient way, Theodore Draper himself had the final words on American Communism: "It is like a museum of radical politics. In its various stages, it has virtually been all things to all men ... There are many ways of trying to understand such a movement, but the first task is historical. In some respects, there is no other way to understand it, or at least to avoid seriously misunderstanding it. Every other approach tends to be static, one-sided or unbalanced."" "Draper correctly notes that the formative period of the American Communist movement has remained a largely untold and even unknown story. In part, the reasons for this are that the Communist movement, although a child of the West, grew to power in the Soviet East. But Draper rescues this chapter with deep appreciation for the fact that communism was not something that happened just in Russia, but also in the United States. This is a must read for scholars and laypersons alike."--BOOK JACKET.

The Communist International and US Communism, 1919-1929

The Communist International and US Communism, 1919-1929 PDF Author: Jacob Zumoff
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004268898
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
Since the Cold War, most historians have set up an opposition between the “American” and “international” aspects of early American Communism. This book examines the development of the Communist Party in its first decade, from 1919 to 1929. Using the archives of the Communist International, this book, in contrast to previous studies, argues that the International played an important role in the early part of this decade in forcing the party to “Americanise”. Special attention is given to the attempts by the Comintern to orient American Communists on the role of black oppression, and to see the struggle for black liberation and the fight for socialism as inextricably linked. The later sections of the book provide the most detailed account now available of how the Comintern, reflecting the Stalinisation of the Soviet Union, intervened in the American party to ensure the Stalinisation of American Communism.

American Communism and Soviet Russia

American Communism and Soviet Russia PDF Author: Theodore Draper
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351532847
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 627

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Book Description
This companion volume to The Roots of American Communism brings to completion what the author describes as the essence of the relationship of American Communism to Soviet Russia in the fi rst decade after the Bolsheviks seized power. The outpouring of new archive materials makes it plain that Draper's premise is direct and to the point: The communist movement "was transformed from a new expression of American radicalism to the American appendage of a Russian revolutionary power." Each generation must fi nd this out for itself, and no better guide exists than the work of master historian Theodore Draper. American Communism and Soviet Russia is acknowledged to be the classic, authoritative history of the critical formative period of the American Communist Party. Based on confi dential minutes of the top party committees, interviews with party leaders, and public records, this book carefully documents the infl uence of the Soviet Union on the fundamental nature of American Communism. Draper's refl ections on that period in this edition are a fi tting capstone to this pioneering effort. Daniel Bell, in Saturday Review, remarked about this work that "there are surprisingly few scholarly histories of individual Communist parties and even fewer which treat of this crucial decade in intimate detail. Draper's account is therefore of great importance." Arthur M. Schlesinger, in The New York Times Book Review, says that "in reading Draper's closely packed pages, one hardly knows whether to marvel more at the detachment with which he examines the Communist movement, the patience with which he unravels the dreary and intricate struggles for power among the top leaders, or the intelligence with which he analyzes the interplay of factors determining the development of American Communism." And Michael Harrington, in Commonweal, asserted that Draper's book "will long be a defi nitive source volume and analysis of the Stalinization of American Communism."

The Soviet World of American Communism

The Soviet World of American Communism PDF Author: Harvey Klehr
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300138008
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
The Secret World of American Communism (1995), filled with revelations about Communist party covert operations in the United States, created an international sensation. Now the American authors of that book, along with Soviet archivist Kyrill M. Anderson, offer a second volume of profound social, political, and historical importance. Based on documents newly available from Russian archives, The Soviet World of American Communism conclusively demonstrates the continuous and intimate ties between the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) and Moscow. In a meticulous investigation of the personal, organizational, and financial links between the CPUSA and Soviet Communists, the authors find that Moscow maintained extensive control of the CPUSA, even of the American rank and file. The widely accepted view that the CPUSA was essentially an idealistic organization devoted to the pursuit of social justice must be radically revised, say the authors. Although individuals within the organization may not have been aware of Moscow’s influence, the leaders of the organization most definitely were. The authors explain and annotate ninety-five documents, reproduced here in their entirety or in large part, and they quote from hundreds of others to reveal the actual workings of the American Communist party. They show that: • the USSR covertly provided a large part of the CPUSA budget from the early 1920s to the end of the 1980s; • Moscow issued orders, which the CPUSA obeyed, on issues ranging from what political decisions the American party should make to who should serve in the party leadership; • the CPUSA endorsed Stalin’s purges and the persecution of Americans living in Russia.

Sojourning for Freedom

Sojourning for Freedom PDF Author: Erik S. McDuffie
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822350505
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Illuminates a pathbreaking black radical feminist politics forged by black women leftists active in the U.S. Communist Party between its founding in 1919 and its demise in the 1950s.

The American Communist Movement

The American Communist Movement PDF Author: Harvey Klehr
Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
In The American Communist Movement: Storming Heaven Itself, Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes trace the turbulent history of American communism as both political party and social movement. Drawing on a wealth of research, they follow the party's fortunes from its origin in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, through its heyday during the Depression years, to the gradual decline in the post-World War II era. The authors examine the effect of the party's ideas on groups more in the mainstream of American politics, as well as the influence of communist "popular front" culture on American culture in general. While duly acknowledging the idealism of many American communists, the authors also take a clear-eyed look at the disturbing aspects of the American communist movement: its subservience to Moscow, its penchant for conspiratorial machinations, its bitter internal disputes and purges, its always latent and sometimes virulent totalitarianism.