Showing papers in "American Communist History in 2009"
TL;DR: The Exile Mission: The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939-1956 By ANNA D JAROSZYNSKA-KIRCHMANN, 2004.
Abstract: The Exile Mission: The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939–1956 By ANNA D JAROSZYNSKA-KIRCHMANN, 2004 Athens: Ohio University Press xix + 368 pp Illustrations, tables, notes, bi
15 citations
TL;DR: By the Ore Docks as mentioned in this paper is a collaboration between an academic historian (Hudelson) and an archivist and former Communist Party activist (Ross). Ross was director of the twentieth century radicalism project of the Minnesota Historical Society before his death in 2005.
Abstract: gained significant influence in the Farmer-Labor Party, with candidate Elmer Benson elected governor in 1936, and Popular Front candidates elected to city government by 1937. Sustaining the power proved to be difficult, as opponents were also organized and the FLP was plagued by internal divisions, including the AFL versus CIO philosophy, as well as the issue of Communism. While Communism is not the reason for the popular front’s demise, the authors do see it as a significant factor, one that would be even more important in the 1940s. The 1938 election was a key defeat for the popular front. The AFL was relatively quiet in its support of the re-election of Governor Benson, and was adamant in its opposition to the re-election of Congressman John Bernard because of alleged corruption and ties to Communism. Without the full support of the AFL, both candidates lost. The AFL withdrew from the FLP in Duluth the next year, and the Popular Front never recovered. The election of a Popular Front candidate to Congress in 1946 was its last significant victory in Duluth. By the Ore Docks is a collaboration between an academic historian (Hudelson) and an archivist and former Communist Party activist (Ross). Ross was director of the twentieth century radicalism project of the Minnesota Historical Society before his death in 2005. The inclusion of a list of archives consulted and a bibliography would be welcome, but detailed footnotes are helpful. The book’s argument is based much more on primary source research, rather than secondary sources, and the authors’ research base is impressive. It reinforces many themes familiar to ethnic, labor and radical historians, but their case study of Duluth also points to the variations that local conditions illuminate. The book is as much about immigrant history as the labor movement and Communist Party. It adds to our understanding of both communism, and anti-radicalism efforts, and how the latter was implemented on the local level, and the role it played in labor and politics. Historians of labour, immigration and ethnicity and radicalism, as well as those interested in Midwest and Great Lakes history, will find this an interesting book.
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TL;DR: The JAFRC was the first organization to be subpoenaed by HUAC, the first to challenge its legitimacy, and the first set the pattern for Cold War inquisitions.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to use the assault on the JAFRC, and Barsky’s individual story within that, to illuminate the mechanisms of political repression during the early Cold War. The JAFRC was the first to be subpoenaed by HUAC, the first to challenge its legitimacy, and the first to set
the pattern for Cold War inquisitions. In 1950, after three years of unsuccessful legal appeals, the Committee’s entire Executive Board was jailed. Barsky received the most severe sentence. It was the biggest single incarceration of political prisoners in America during the early Cold War. Upon release, Barsky lost his right to practise medicine. By early 1955, the JAFRC had dissolved: like Barsky’s career, it had been crippled by McCarthyism.
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TL;DR: By the Ore Docks: A Working People's History of Duluth as mentioned in this paper, by Richard Holden and Carl ROSS, 2006 Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press vii + 336 pages.
Abstract: By the Ore Docks: A Working People's History of Duluth RICHARD HUDELSON AND CARL ROSS, 2006 Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press vii + 336 pages. Illustrations, notes and index. $18.95. By th...
4 citations
4 citations
TL;DR: In the early 1930s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) waged a highly publicized and romanticized "war on crime" against notorious gangsters such as John Dillinger and the Ma Barker gang as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the early 1930s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) waged a highly publicized and romanticized “war on crime” against notorious gangsters such as John Dillinger and the Ma Barker gang. Af...
3 citations
TL;DR: The most celebrated cause of the popular front period (1935-1939) was the Spanish Republic, offering a test-case for the anti-fascist alliance the front was intended to foster as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In its time the Spanish Civil War provoked an outpouring of sympathy throughout the international community and an accompanying amount of historical literature since then. Spain’s Republic was the most celebrated cause of the popular front period (1935–1939), offering a test-case for the anti-fascist alliance the front was intended to foster. Yet as Daniel Kowalsky explained recently concerning the Soviet Union’s role in Spain, ‘‘The subject of solidarity and relief aid . . . has received scant attention in Western secondary literature.’’ When it is mentioned at all, scholars – depending on their political persuasion – have generally classified Spanish republican aid as one small component of the popular front where participants in front activities are characterized as either a broad coalition or serving only the interests of the Comintern. The recent trend toward micro-level histories of communism (i.e. biographies, cityand
3 citations
TL;DR: The Roots of American Co... as discussed by the authors is a book about the origins of communism in the United States, and it is a tribute to the late Theodore Draper that his two volumes on the origins in America remain central to a field.
Abstract: Fifty years is a long time for books to remain central to a field. It is a tribute to Theodore Draper that his two volumes on the origins of communism in the United States, The Roots of American Co...
TL;DR: Alwood as discussed by the authors describes the Dark Days in the Newsroom: McCarthyism Aimed at the Press, 2007 Philadelphia: Temple University Press xiv + 201pp Cloth, $66.50; paper, $24.95
Abstract: Dark Days in the Newsroom: McCarthyism Aimed at the Press EDWARD ALWOOD, 2007 Philadelphia: Temple University Press xiv + 201pp Cloth, $66.50; paper, $24.95 Even if the guilt of Alger Hiss or Harry...
TL;DR: Vincent as mentioned in this paper argues that Paine has never been accorded his proper place in the American pantheon, since hostile American officials denied that he was even an American citizen when he returned to the US in 1802 from war-torn Europe.
Abstract: Thomas Paine burst on the American Revolutionary scene with the publication of his sensationally popular Common Sense in January 1776. Providing patriots with a devastating and demystifying critique of the vaunted British Constitution, Paine’s brilliant polemic prepared the way for the Declaration of Independence a few months later. No writer was more active and effective than Paine in the cause of American nation-making. A recent arrival from Britain with artisanal roots and deep-seated grievances against the metropolis’s government and class system, he was the right man in the right place at the right time. Yet, as French historian Bernard Vincent argues in this collection of essays first published in the 1980s and 1990s, Paine has never been accorded his proper place in the American pantheon. Indeed, hostile American officials denied that he was even an American citizen when he returned to the US in 1802 from war-torn Europe. Paine was instead ‘‘a citizen of nowhere, a man without a country, a voter forbidden to vote, a disenfranchised Founding Father’’ (114). But Paine has found an able and determined partisan in Vincent. The essays in The Transatlantic Republican focus on a few key Paine texts, notable Common Sense, The Letter to Abbé Raynal (1782), The Rights of Man (1791–1792), The Age of Reason (1794–1795), Agrarian Justice (1796) and Maritime Compact (1800). Written for various occasions and audiences, Vincent’s essays do not constitute a coherent or systematic exposition of Paine’s political thought or career. Instead, they seek to illuminate the broad intellectual contexts—the cosmopolitan milieus of the ‘‘Age of the Democratic Revolution’’—within which Paine made his mark. Paine himself is only a minor figure in two essays, one on the Masons (‘‘though he probably never belonged to any specific fraternity, he nevertheless actively sympathized with the Masonic movement and the philosophy it espoused,’’ 38), another on ‘‘Americans in Paris during the French Revolution.’’ But both enable us to understand better why Paine was attracted to world-wide revolution and why revolutionaries elsewhere found him such an attractive figure. Despite some perhaps unavoidable repetition and the inclusion of a few slight,
TL;DR: A half century ago, a book advertised by its publisher as “authoritative inside history” revealing how Moscow “shaped” the American Communist Party has remained a seminal work for anyone interested in history as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A half century ago, a book advertised by its publisher as “authoritative inside history” revealing how Moscow “shaped” the American Communist Party has remained a seminal work for anyone interested...
TL;DR: In this paper, the most important factor was the Cold War, which shaped Draper's history, and it was a combination of two factors: the cold war and his personal experience.
Abstract: First, I would like to ask, what shaped Draper's history? I think it was a combination of two factors. The most important factor, of course, was the Cold War. Like all historians, Draper was palpab...
TL;DR: Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics as discussed by the authors, by John EARL Hayes and Harvey E. Kellehr, 2006 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press xii + 251 pp.
Abstract: Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics. JOHN EARL HAYNES AND HARVEY KLEHR, 2006 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press xii + 251 pp. Foreword, index, $67.00 cloth, ...
TL;DR: For much of the twentieth century, Jews comprised a disproportionate component of the American left. Before World War I, the Jewish Socialist Federation, claiming 14,000 members, was a significant...
Abstract: For much of the twentieth century, Jews comprised a disproportionate component of the American left. Before World War I, the Jewish Socialist Federation, claiming 14,000 members, was a significant ...