Showing papers in "American Communist History in 2011"
TL;DR: The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History GORDON S. WOOD as discussed by the authors, 2009 New York: Penguin pp. 323 + index. $19.95; paper $8.95.
Abstract: The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History GORDON S. WOOD, 2009 New York: Penguin pp. 323 + index. $19.95; paper $8.95. Gordon Wood has studied one revolution while living through ...
34 citations
TL;DR: The subject of this annual bibliography is the scholarly literature of United States communism as discussed by the authors, and the annotations are provided where a work's title does not convey its chronological or geog...
Abstract: The subject of this annual bibliography is the scholarly literature of United States communism. Informational annotations are provided where a work's title does not convey its chronological or geog...
29 citations
TL;DR: Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America by Harvey Klemmer and John E. Haynes as mentioned in this paper, 2009 New Haven: Yale University Press pp. 650 +xviii $35.00
Abstract: Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America HARVEY KLEHR and JOHN HAYNES, 2009 New Haven: Yale University Press pp. 650 +xviii $35.00 In this fascinating and much-discussed book, John E. Haynes ...
18 citations
TL;DR: The international exposure in 1952 and 1953 of the explicit anti-Semitism associated with the Prague trial of Rudolf Slansky and 13 others (the bulk, Czech Jewish Communists), as well as the Soviet...
Abstract: The international exposure in 1952 and 1953 of the explicit anti-Semitism associated with the Prague trial of Rudolf Slansky and 13 others (the bulk, Czech Jewish Communists), as well as the Soviet...
6 citations
TL;DR: The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America HUGH WILFORD, 2008 Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 342pp. Illustrations, notes, and index as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America HUGH WILFORD, 2008 Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 342pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. $27.95 Some historians build their careers by movi...
6 citations
TL;DR: When the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party seized power in Petrograd in October/November 1917, an acute fear of international socialist revolution engulfed Western nat... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: When the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party seized power in Petrograd in October/November 1917, an acute fear of international socialist revolution engulfed Western nat...
5 citations
TL;DR: Eisenhower, an avid baseball fan, planned to attend the Washington Senators home game on the evening of June 19, 1953 as discussed by the authors, but a few hours before the game, however, Secretary of State...
Abstract: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, an avid baseball fan, planned to attend the Washington Senators home game on the evening of June 19, 1953.2 A few hours before the game, however, Secretary of State ...
4 citations
TL;DR: The Bolsheviks' seizure of state power in Tsarist Russia in 1917 shook the world as discussed by the authors and through a policy of revolutionary defeatism, the party of Lenin hastened the end of the imperialist war in Europe.
Abstract: The Bolsheviks’ seizure of state power in Tsarist Russia in 1917 shook the world. Through a policy of revolutionary defeatism, the party of Lenin hastened the end of the imperialist war in Europe. ...
3 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the author reported on a growing housewives movement against high food prices in New York City as Barton explained, “for the past two weeks New York Housewives have been demonstrating against food prices.
Abstract: In June 1935, Communist Ann Barton reported for the New Masses on a growing housewives movement against high food prices in New York City As Barton explained, “for the past two weeks New York hous
2 citations
2 citations
TL;DR: All honor to you, aging, ever-young Veterans! Some day a monument will rise in Washington next to Abe Lincoln in his stone seat, whose dedication will read: A TRIBUTE FROM THE PEOPLE OF the United States...
Abstract: All honor to you, aging, ever-young Veterans! Some day a monument will rise in Washington next to Abe Lincoln in his stone seat, whose dedication will read: A TRIBUTE FROM THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED ...
TL;DR: One evening during the late 1940s, a Catholic housewife on the east side of Detroit knocked on the doors of the eighteen families on her block. This woman had decided that she could no longer stand...
Abstract: One evening during the late 1940s, a Catholic housewife on the east side of Detroit knocked on the doors of the eighteen families on her block. This woman had decided that she could no longer stand...
TL;DR: Demos as discussed by the authors presents a short history of witch-hunting in the United States, focusing on the Enemy Within: A Short History of Witch-Hhunting, 2009.
Abstract: The Enemy Within: A Short History of Witch-Hunting JOHN DEMOS, 2009 New York: Penguin Books xvi +318 pp. Bibliographic commentary, index of names and general index. $17.00 In 1982 John Demos, now S...
TL;DR: In this article, Mirra's The Admirable Radical and Andrej Grubačić's From Here to There, two valuable tomes, employ the powerful tools of radical history and radical political theory to deal with crucial political, social and moral issues of postindustrial and post-modern American imperial society and culture.
Abstract: Carl Mirra’s The Admirable Radical and Andrej Grubačić’s From Here to There, two valuable tomes, employ the powerful tools of radical history and radical political theory to deal with crucial political, social and moral issues of postindustrial and post-modern American imperial society and culture. They also confirm the iconoclastic historian-activist Staughton Lynd as a contemporary saint and prophet of the American social democratic Left. I do not believe that it is hyperbole to state that Professor Lynd is the American E.P. Thompson and the American Ignazio Silone. Concerning the latter Marxist thinker, Lynd embodies the conception of ‘‘accompaniment’’: he dwells with, and focuses on meeting the tangible needs of, the distressed American working class in the ‘‘rust belt’’ near Youngstown, Ohio. In ‘‘Ebonics,’’ one would say he not just ‘‘talks the talk, but walks the walk.’’ Staughton lays out this authentic radicalism in an inspiring autobiography of himself and his activist wife Alice in Stepping Stones: Memoir of a Life Together (2009).
TL;DR: The New Singers three-record set as mentioned in this paper was the first recording by and for American Communists, but it was not very American-sounding, and the music was German, with three of Eisler's songs, each carrying lyrics by his countryman and frequent collaborator, Bertholt Brecht.
Abstract: One effect of the united front announced in Moscow at the Seventh Comintern Congress was that the artistic wing of American Communism, long interested in using the arts to advance the class struggle, threw itself into an effort to Americanize its output. A resurgent Nazi Germany was a threat; Soviet leaders wanted to gather all the anti-fascist friends they could. Communists the world over were directed to broaden the party’s appeal. This new policy of outreach to the American mainstream was one that writers, artists, composers and musicians embraced with gusto. What form their outreach would take was at first a matter for experimentation. In December 1935, the Daily Worker, official newspaper of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), heralded ‘‘the first American phonograph discs to bear working class and revolutionary songs to the masses.’’ The three choral discs, put out by the Timely Recording Company in New York and issued under the name The New Singers, featured the work of the German composer Hanns Eisler. The discs have three of Eisler’s songs, each carrying lyrics by his countryman and frequent collaborator, Bertholt Brecht. ‘‘United Front,’’ perhaps the most well-known Eisler/Brecht song, is a terse call to action, militant in cadence and words: ‘‘The liberation of the working class is the work of the workers alone.’’ While the New Singers three-record set constituted the first recording by and for American Communists, it was not very American-sounding. The music was
TL;DR: In this paper, an unpublished, undated and incomplete memoir that covers James S. Allen's tenure (1962-1972) as President and Editor-In-Chief of International Publishers (hereafter, IP), the Communist Par...
Abstract: This is an unpublished, undated and incomplete memoir that covers James S. Allen's tenure (1962–1972) as President and Editor-In-Chief of International Publishers (hereafter, IP), the Communist Par...
TL;DR: This special issue of American Communist History marks a starting point in the use of the comparative approach to better understand Communism and anti-Communism in both Australia and the United States as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This special issue of American Communist History marks a starting point in the use of the comparative approach to better understand Communism and anti-Communism in both Australia and the United States. The main scholarly outlet for historians of Australian Communism remains
the quarterly journal Labour History, which has been published continuously since 1962. It has made only two forays into comparative labor history— discussing Canada in 1996, and Great Britain in 2005. So this issue of American
Communist History marks a new development: it is not only this journal’s first comparative issue, but also the first to bring together Australian and American Communist history.
TL;DR: This article examined four different instances of blacklisting and explored the impact on Howard Fast's life, concluding that blacklisting significantly harmed Fast's career, financially and physically, and it was only after he publicly renounced the Communist Party in 1957 that both his literary reputation and his access to publishers were restored.
Abstract: The historiography of the blacklist is uneven. There have been numerous scholarly studies and personal memoirs concerning blacklisting during the McCarthyist era, particularly in the entertainment industry. But there are very few works that directly focus on the blacklisting of writers, or refer to the subject of this paper, Howard Fast. There is no discussion of the processes or consequences of the blacklisting of Fast’s books in a critical biography, since none exists. This paper will therefore focus for the first time on the blacklisting experience of Fast. The period examined will be 1947 to 1958, when Fast’s literary reputation in the United States plummeted, along with the sales of his books. The paper will examine four different instances of blacklisting and explore the impact on Fast’s life. It will demonstrate that blacklisting significantly harmed Fast – professionally, financially and physically. In seeking to counteract such blacklisting, he used various devices, notably self-publication, none of them successful. It was only after he publicly renounced the Communist Party in 1957 that both his literary reputation and his access to publishers were restored
TL;DR: In the age of the internet, the prognosis for the future of the movie-minded sourcebook is not promising as discussed by the authors, since few of the documents contained in the collection cannot be retrieved without a few clicks of the mouse leading to a webpage that will also likely have supplemental links and video clips.
Abstract: eclectic collection, winnowed by the critical acumen of the two editors. Not too long ago, Hollywood and Politics would have been a welcome addition to the film historian’s bookshelf. Nowadays, one suspects that such volumes are a dying print-based breed, destined to go the way of illuminated manuscripts and, uh, newspapers. In the age of the internet—where databases on film proliferate—the prognosis for the future of the movie-minded sourcebook is not promising. Few of the documents contained in the collection cannot be retrieved without a few clicks of the mouse leading to a webpage that will also likely have supplemental links and video clips. As in 1895, a new historymaking medium is making things difficult for historians.
TL;DR: ROSSINOW as discussed by the authors discusses the left-liberal tradition in America and the vision of progress in America, focusing on women and women's reproductive rights, in a thoroughly researched, solidl...
Abstract: Visions of Progress: The Left-Liberal Tradition in America DOUG ROSSINOW, 2008 Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press ix + 322 pp. Notes and index. $24.95 In a thoroughly researched, solidl...