Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

NOTES
political displacement by his former protégé. During the Popular Front era, a political line the Foster vehemently opposed,
personal tensions continued to rise between Foster and Browder, with Foster waiting primarily on the political sidelines for
the opportune moment to denounce Browder. For a highly dramatized and insightful narrative of the 1929 American
Commission meeting and Foster's role in trying to secure for himself a position of leadership see Theodore Draper, American
Communism,405-441.
32. Though Browder was demonized by his former comrades both domestically internationally, Browder never fully turned
his back on the CPUSA by either cooperating with Federal investigations or denouncing the party in public which would
have strengthened "totalitarian theorists." The closest that Browder ever came in "exposing" the CPUSA to any public
scorn was by sharing collections of private documents and materials with his close confidant and former CPUSA "fellow
traveller" Phillip Jaffe. See Earl Browder, Marx and America: Why Communism Failed in the US (New York: Duell,
Sloan and Pearce, 1958); Phillip J. Jaffe, The Rise and Fall of American Communism (New York: Horizon Press, 1975).
33. In a 1957 interview with reporter Mike Wallace, Browder stated, "I think that it is very necessary for America to assimilate
intellectually, emotionally the experience of the 1930's when the Communist Party was an influence here… and not merely
to throw it off as something extraneous… that what occurred in those years was not a victory of an alien experience, but an
authentic part of America's experience. And if America cannot assimilate that and understand it… it will leave a trauma in
the national mind that will cause trouble for our country in the future." Quoted in Jaffe, 182. Browder's Popular Front
strategy centred upon emphasising the "Americanism" of the CPUSA. For the major work that developed Browder's
"Americanism" thesis see Earl Browder, Who Are the Americans (New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1936).
34. John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, ""Nina Ponomareva's.""
35. In what was intended to be a "secret speech" to the top leaders of the CPSU, Khrushchev openly denounced the legacy of
Joseph Stalin and "exposed" the crimes of Stalin's regime. On June 5, 1956 the New York Times obtained a copy of the
speech and printed its text in full, creating a period of immense crisis for communist parties internationally. According to
the analysis offered by the Times, Khrushchev had exposed Stalin as "a savage, half-mad, power-crazed despot whose
reign had been enforced by terror, torture and brute force." Quoted in Lawrence Lader, Power on the Left: American Radical
Movements Since 1946 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1979), 121.
36. For a review of some of the theoretical and methodological trends that came out of the New Left Review see Perry Anderson,
Considerations on Western Marxism (London: New Left Review Books, 1976).
37. Perry Anderson, "Communist Party History," in People's History and Social Theory, ed. Raphael Samuel (London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), 148.
38. See Raphael Samuel, "The Lost World of British Communism," New Left Review 154 (1985): 3-53; "Staying Power:
TLWBC, Part Two," New Left Review 156 (1986): 63-113; "Class Politics: TLWBC, Part Three," New Left Review 165
(1987): 52-91.
39. Raphael Samuel, "The Lost World," 14.
40. Narratives on the CPGB that have been influenced by "New Left" revisionism include Geoff Andrews, Nina Fishman and
Kevin Morgan, Opening the Books. Essays on the Social and Cultural History of the British Communist Party (London:
Pluto Press, 1995.); Geoff Andrews, Endgames and New Times. The Final Years of British Communism 1964-1991 (London:
Lawrence & Wishart, 2004); Noreen Branson, History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1927-1941 (London:
Lawrence and Wishart, 1985); Noreen Branson, History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1941-1951 (London:
Lawrence and Wishart, 1997); Kevin Morgan, Against Fascism and War: Ruptures and Continuities in British Communist
Politics 1935-1941 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989); Andy Croft, A Weapon in the Struggle: The Cultural
History of the Communist Party in Britain (London: Pluto Press, 1998); John McIlroy, Kevin Morgan and Alan
Campbell, Party People, Communist Lives: Explorations In Biography (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2001).
41. See Isserman, Which Side; Fraser M. Ottanelli, The Communist Party of the United States: From the Depression to World
War II (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1991).
42. In his preface, Isserman reflected upon the relationship of the sixties with CP revisionism stating, "But the collapse of the
apocalyptic expectations of the late 1960's created a hunger among this new generation of left-wing activists for a tradition
that could serve as both a source of political reference and an inspiration in what now was clearly to be a prolonged struggle.
Issermann, Which Side, ix. Isserman also produced a text on New Left student radicalism that attempted to bridge the
gaps in the history between the communist left and the New Left. See Maurice Isserman, If I Had a Hammer: The Death
of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993).
43. In an upcoming publication on the CPGB, Kevin Morgan comments on generational analysis, arguing that "no concept is
more important in making sense of the attitudes and alignments of communists." Kevin Morgan, "Communists and British
Society, 1920-1991: People of a Special Mould: Chapter 7, Trajectories and Collisions," (Unpublished Manuscript: Email
Correspondence, January 2005), 2.
44. See Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade (New York: Basic Books, 1984).
45. Ottanelli, 5.
46. For examples of recent "revisionist" trends in historiography for the CPUSA see Robbie Liberman. My Song is my
Weapon: People’s Songs, American Communism, and the Politics of Culture, 1930-1950 (Chicago: University of Illinois
Press, 1989); Michael E. Brown, New Studies in the Politics and Culture of U.S. Communism. (New York: Monthly Review
Press, 1993); Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem During the Depression (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1983); Paul Buhle, Marxism in the United States: Remapping the History of the American Left (New York: Verso, 1991).
47. For a critical commentary on the development of communist historiography and the role of "espionage" in influencing
modern studies see Maurice Isserman, "Open Archives and Open Minds: "Traditionalists" Versus "Revisionists" After
Venona," American Communist History 4, no.2 (Fall, 2005): 215-223.
48. See Andrew Thorpe, The British Communist Party and Moscow, 1920-43 (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
2000).
49. Andrew Thorpe, "Comintern 'Control' of the Communist Party of Great Britain," English Historical Review 113, (1998):
645-646.
50. John Mcilroy and Alan Campbell, "A Peripheral Vision: Communist Historiography In Britain," American Communist
History 4, no.2 (Fall, 2005): 142-143.
51. David Howell, "Review of Thorpe, British Communist Party," English Historical Review 116 (2001): 916.
52. Prior to his study of the CPGB, Thorpe edited an essay collection that explored the relationship of national parties to the
Comintern during the inter-war period. See International Communism and the Communist International, 1919-43, ed.
Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998).
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