File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-01-29.113, message 44


Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 08:40:44 -0500 (EST)
From: Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: Re: M-I: histories of US communism



You shoukd start with the Theodore Draper's two hostile but excellent
books on the early years, one of which is called The Roots of American
Communism; I forget the title of the other. Even more hostile but also
quite scholarly is Harvey Klehr's The Heyday of Am. Com.: The Depression
Decade. Maurice Issermna's books on the CP in WWII and the Rise of the New
Left, as well as his book-length interview-life of Dorothy Healy are more
positive and take the story up to the start of the 60s. There is also the
older Coser and Howe book, hostile and dated, but with some valuable
information. I myself like Jessica Mitford's A Fine Old Conflict, a
well-written CP memoir. Vibian Gornick's Romance of Am. Com is
impressionistic and sentimental, but has some useful material. Peggy
Dennis has a very odd memoir too.

For a broader picture, especially including Troytskyism, see Alan Wald's
The New York Intellectuals.

That should get you started.

--Justin 

On Mon, 27 Jan 1997, Doug Henwood wrote:

> What would folks recommend as good histories of U.S. Communism, both
> broadly defined and about the CP?
> 
> Doug
> 
> --
> 
> Doug Henwood
> Left Business Observer
> 250 W 85 St
> New York NY 10024-3217 USA
> +1-212-874-4020 voice  +1-212-874-3137 fax
> email: <dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
> web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
> 
> 
> 
> 
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