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Indlæser... The Roots of American Communism: With a New Introduction by the Author (udgave 2003)af Theodore Draper
Work InformationThe Roots of American Communism af Theodore Draper
   Ingen Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog.  tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |   This book also made me aware of the ideological crisis that occured in the Russian party when the revolution failed to materialize in Western Europe. A solid basis for an further reading about the American left. Recommended and not dry. (  ) cblaker | Aug 29, 2011 |   LanternLibrary | Nov 11, 2017 | ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
"In this definitive history of the evolution of the Communist Party in America - from its early background through its founding in 1919 to its emergence as a legal entity in the 1920s - Theodore Draper traces the native and foreign strains that comprised the party. He emphasizes its shifting policies and secrets as well as its open activities. He makes clear how the party in its infancy "was transformed from a new expression of American radicalism to the American appendage of a Russian revolutionary power," a fact that Draper develops in his succeeding volume, American Communism and Soviet Russia." "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."--Jacket. No library descriptions found. |
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SO, I got "The Roots of American Communism" to read so I cd have some background history before getting into the biz about Oppenheimer - & history in great detail I did get. One of the things that interested me about this bk was that it was written & published during the beginning of the decline of the McCarthy Era. The bk is ostensibly written from an anti-communist perspective &, according to a Wikipedia bio, Draper was a communist turned anti-communist, but Draper's acct is more of a thorough timeline in wch most of the communists are often presented as dedicated, energetic, well-meaning & intelligent people.
While the bk is, indeed, extremely thorough in its history of who was who, where these whos were, what their various names were, & when they did what they did I didn't actually find much in the bk about the actual philosophy, the actual political motivations of the people involved. As such, it sortof reminds me of my mom, a virulent anti-communist who, when I asked her what communism was when I was a kid in the early 1960s, was unable to give me even the simplest definition. She was a typical brainwashed suburbanite - a total victim of propaganda she didn't believe existed.
Draper obviously has a much deeper understanding but either such definitions were outside the purview of the bk or he was treading lightly b/c of McCarthyism or? Whatever the case, the bk is scholarly & cd've arguably been used to make a case that these communists were upstanding citizens trying to better the world. He clearly has an admiration for many of them - esp the self-made intellectuals (a type dear to me). (