copyright Robert H;
Zieger, August 15, 2006
HIS 3931
Communism and Anti-Communism in 20th Century America
Final
exam
Instructor:
Robert H. Zieger. Office is 236 Keene-Flint. Hours: Monday, 3:00-4:00;
Wednesday, 11:45-12:35; Friday, 9:35-10:25. Reachable at 392-0271, ex
252 and
zieger@ufl.edu[.] Website: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rzieger The section number is
5603.
Required
reading: Albert Fried, ed., Communism in America: A
History in Documents; Richard
Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: Stephen Whitfield, The
Culture of the Cold War. Other readings are
available through Course Reserve or are linked via the on-line
syllabus. The books are available
at Gator Textbook, 3501 SW 2d Ave., Suite D; 352-374-4500.
Course objectives: To encourage thoughtful
consideration of the role of Communism and other
forms of radical activism in 20th Century America; to
investigate the character and implications of
political dissent and repression; to help students to develop their
political ideas; to help students
to sharpen research, writing, analytical, and oral presentation skills.
Grading, etc.:
There is a mid-term exam, to be handed in Oct.20 (20%), and a
final exam
(25%), to be handed in on (or before) Dec.14. Reading quizzes count a
total of 25%. A term
project is due in stages and counts 30% (see below). Exams are
take-home and follow an essay
format. See full on-line syllabus for daily reading assignments,
explanation of term project and
exams, and other items.
Students are expected to attend class regularly and to have
completed the reading assignment
indicated for each session, below. In the event of absence, students
will want to consult the
website, clicking on sessions to review the
class session(s) missed. There will be frequent quizzes
on reading assignments, some of which will be posted on the website
before the class in which the
quiz is to be administered. But do note that in order to receive credit
for a quiz, the student must
attend the whole class session. Since these quizzes are designed to
encourage attendance and
discussion of assigned reading, there will be no make-up
quizzes for any reason. I will drop
the lowest 3 scores (including zeroes for non-attendance) in
calculating the final quiz grade. Students must achieve a
grade of 60% or higher on the quizzes to pass the course.
Notices
Students requesting classroom accommodations must first register with
the Dean of Students
Office. A student requesting classroom accommodation must then present
the resulting
documentation to the instructor.
An unpleasant reminder: Students are alerted to the University's
statement on Academic
Honesty. This statement covers plagiarism, attribution, citation,
multiple submission of papers,
bogus data, plain old cheating, and student defense. Students are
expected to be, or to become,
familiar with standard legitimate practices and may inspect the above
document at
http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/academic.php
I'll be happy to advise on these matters.
Class sessions
Aug. 23-Introduction
Aug. 25-World War I and the Russian Revolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1917
Aug. 28-US intervention. Excerpt from Zieger, America's Great War
(Course Reserve)
Aug. 30-Twentieth-Century political ideologies. Reading: Socialism
Sept. 1-Fighting Faiths, 1-117
Sept. 6-Fighting Faiths, 118-242
Sept. 8-Fighting Faiths, 243-370
Sept. 11-Overview of the CPUSA. Fried, Communism in America (CIA),
1-25
Sept. 13-Founding. CIA, 25-45 and 49-53.
Sept. 15-How to be a Communist. CIA, 45-49; James R. Barrett,
"Boring from Within and
Without: William Z. Foster, the Trade Union Educational League, and
American Communism in
the 1920s," Labor Histories: Class, Politics, and the
Working-Class Experience, ed. Arnesen et
al. (University of Illinois Press, 1998), pp. 309-39 (Course Reserve)
Sept. 18-Communist culture in the 1920s. CIA, 53-72 and 83-88.
Sept. 20-Labor. CIA, 72-81; Roger Keeran, "Communist
Influence in the Automobile Industry,
1920-1933: Paving the Way for an Industrial Union," Labor History
20: 2 (Spring 1979): 189-226
(Course Reserve)
Sept. 22-Dogma and Dissent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky
(Read to the section
titled "The Last Exile"); CIA, 82-83 and 88-92
Sept. 25-Capitalism in Crisis? CIA, 82-83; 93-97; 109-112
Sept. 27-The CPUSA in Action, 1929-34. CIA, 97-100; 106-09;
112-38; 220-26.
Sept. 29-Race and Radicalism. CIA, 103-06; 138-57; Charles
H. Martin, "The International
Labor Defense and Black America," Labor History, 26:2 (Spring
1985): 165-194 (Course
Reserve)
Oct. 2-Communism and Culture in the 1930s. CIA, 100-03;
158-212
Oct. 4-The Popular Front. CIA, 227-54; 276-306
Oct. 9-Communists and the "Woman Question." CIA, 57-60; 319-25
Oct. 11-Labor in the 1930s. CIA, 254-76
Oct. 13-American Communists and the USSR-The Purges. CIA,
306-11; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge
Mid-term questions distributed.
Oct. 18-World War II:
Diplomacy and War
Oct. 20-Songs of the
Popular Front Era. Mid-term exams due.
Oct. 23-"Are the Yanks Coming?," excerpt from Howe and Coser, The
American Communist
Party (Course Reserve)
Oct. 25-American Communists at War. CIA, 325-36; film excerpts
from North Star
Oct. 27-Cold War Begins. CIA, 337-50; Les K. Adler and Thomas
G. Paterson, "Red Fascism: The Merger of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia
in the American Image of Totalitarianism,
1930's-1950's," American Historical Review 75: 4 (April
1970): 1046-1064 (Course
Reserve)
Oct.30-Espionage. Katherine A. S. Sibley, "Soviet Military-Industrial
Espionage in the United
States and the Emergence of an Espionage Paradigm in US-Soviet
Relations." American
Communist History 2: 1 (June 2003) (Course Reserve)
Nov. 1-Communists and Culture. CIA, 350-59; Dan Georgakas,
"The Hollywood Reds: 50
Years Later," American Communist History, 2: 1 (2003): 63-76
(Course Reserve)
Nov. 3-Labor. Excerpts from Zieger and Gall, American Workers,
American Unions, 123-34
(Course Reserve); CIA, 371-75
Nov. 6-Communists and Civil Rights. CIA, 375-89
Nov. 8-The Anti-Communist Impulse. CIA, 359-71; Mary S.
McAuliffe, "Liberals and the
Communist Control Act of 1954,"Journal of American History 63:
(September, 1976): 351-367 (Course Reserve)
Nov. 13-McCarthyism Florida Style. James A. Schnur, "Cold Warriors in
the Hot Sunshine:
USF and the Johns Committee," Journal of the Tampa Historical
Society, 18 (November
1992) (Course Reserve)
Nov. 15-The Changing Cold War. Robert H. Zieger, "The Evolving Cold
War," American
Communist History 3: 1 (2004): 3-24 (Course Reserve)
Nov. 17-The Khrushchev Revelations. CIA, 390-404;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Personality_Cult_and_its_Consequences
Nov. 20-Cold War America. Whitfield, Culture of the Cold War,
1-76
Nov. 22-Cold War America. Whitfield, CCW, 77-151
Nov. 27-Cold War America. Whitfield, CCW, 153-241
Nov. 29 and Dec. 1-Old Left and New Left. Film: Seeing Red
, NOTE: The material in this film
is important and knowledge of it may be necessary for a strong
performance on the final exam. Anyone having missed the film, or
part
of it, can view it via the Reserve Room in Library West, where it has
been put on 2 hour reserve, starting Monday, December 4.
Dec. 4-Assessing American Communism. CIA, 403-12; Leo
Ribuffo, "The Complexity of
American Communism," in Ribuffo, Right Center Left: Essays in
American History
(1992), 129-160 (Course
Reserve)
Dec. 6-Wrap-up. Exam questions distributed. Course evaluation.
Final exam to be turned in on or before December 14 at 2:30 pm.
*****
Term Project
The term project is based
on The Nation, an American magazine that during the period
covered by this course devoted much attention to Communism,
anti-Communism, and related
issues. Each student will be assigned a four-month (about 16 issues)
period to investigate. The
Nation is available both electronically and in hard copy. See
below for access directions. The
student's task is to read through the magazine, noting all articles and
commentaries relating
broadly to the themes of Communism and anti-Communism; to write about
the magazine's
treatment of these issues; and, in somewhat greater depth, to produce a
paper on a particular issue
or theme relating to Communism/anti-Communism dealt with in the
magazine.
As always in this class, good writing is expected.
How to get to The Nation archive:
1. Log on to the UF Home Page–if
you are off campus, be sure to go through Off Campus Access
2. Click on Journals (or
E-Journals)
3. On the resulting screen, be
sure that the box on the left says “Title Begins With”; DO NOT use the
“Exact Title” option
4. Type the word Nation in the box
on the right and click on Search
5. On the resulting screen, scroll
down to where it says Nation (New York, N.Y.) and click on Nation
Archive
6. This brings you to a listing of
years. Scroll to your year, and then locate your months, and
you’re in business.
The project will be handed in in
three stages.
September 22: A one-page
abstract of an important article found in the magazine. Be sure
to give author, full title, magazine name, and date of publication.
This exercise counts for
10% of the project grade.
October 27: A paper
of about 1000 words broadly describing and characterizing the
magazine's treatment of the subject of Communism and anti-Communism.
30%.
December 1: A
paper of about 2500 words on a particular topic covered extensively in
the
magazine. For this paper, the student will need to consult and make use
of three
additional sources, at least one of which will be a book. 60%.
It is important to get
started promptly on this project. No doubt, it will be useful to read
ahead in the course's required readings so as to acquire background
information. Note that the
journal articles on Course Reserve have many citations to relevant
readings, usually in the
footnotes, and that Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War,
has an extensive bibliographical
essay. Students will also find John Haynes's exhaustive on-line
bibliography, available at
http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page94.html
of use. I am eager to consult either in person or via
e-mail (or both) with students about their papers and to make
suggestions as to topics, readings,
and the like. These consultations are always most productive when
students have done some of
their own investigating beforehand.
*****
Rules for
take-home exams
Questions for take-home
exams will be distributed on the dates indicated in the syllabus. I'll
also
post them on the course website. Students are expected to choose one
question on which to
write and to produce a well-crafted essay that responds to the question
thoughtfully.
1. In grading these
papers, I give great weight to the first paragraph. It must contain your most
significant conclusions about the subject under discussion. It
is likely that you will re-write the
first paragraph after finishing the main body of the essay because it
is often the case that a writer
gains a full sense of her or his argument only after working through
the issues.
2. Papers must be typed and
double-spaced. Staple
the pages.
3. Answers must not exceed 1500 words (the equivalent of 6 typed,
double-spaced sheets).
4. In developing your response to the question you choose to write on,
in addition to reference to
relevant class-required readings, select a relevant article on
the subject from a scholarly
journal for use in preparing your essay. How do I find a
"relevant article," you may ask. Here are some thoughts:
Carefully examine the
bibliographical and footnote material in class-required
readings for possible outside sources.
Use keyword searches in JSTOR, Project Muse, and other electronic
journal
locator sites.
Don't just take the first one you
stumble on. Look for an article that will help you
to develop a distinctive approach to the question, one that will add
information
and/or insights to your essay and help it to be more than a
regurgitation of
assigned material.
Consult with me either in person or via
e-mail about your choices. This works
best when you do some homework first and have a couple of titles in
hand before
seeking my response.
5. Respond to the question
in your own words, drawing on class presentations, required readings,
and the selected additional source (see no. 4 above). Don't overquote.
6. Refer specifically to the readings, both class-required and outside,
upon which you draw,
whether you quote them or merely refer to them. Always make the
identity of the author clear.
("As Woodly Darrow argues. . ."; or, "Contrary to the view of Frieda
Burpp. . .").
7. Be precise in references to people, organizations, party manifestoes
and other documents,
legislative acts, court decisions, and so forth. Make sure the essay
contains frequent references to
chronology and that it develops in a clear chronological fashion.
8. See the section How to Write in the term
project assignment handout for more detailed advice
about writing and mechanics.
9. Questions, suggestions, advice, encouragement? I'm your guy.
Grading weights for take-home
exams
First paragraph. 15 pts.
Cogency of overall
approach. 25 pts.
Factual accuracy and
chronological development. 15 pts.
Use of required
readings. 10 pts.
Quality of and
engagement with student-selected sources. 15 pts.
Quality of writing
(organization, clarity, observance of writing rules). 20 pts.
*****
How to write
1. The first paragraph of a
historical paper, be it a research paper, short synopsis, or book
review,
should contain the author's central thesis or conclusions. The author
must mention all important
actors, as well as inclusive dates of coverage and basic concepts or
historical developments in the
first paragraph.
2. Use vigorous, direct language. Short sentences work. Employ
concrete, precise nouns and
active verbs, being careful, for example, to find active substitutes
for forms of the verb "to be" and
"to go." Inexperienced writers often erroneously think that convoluted
language, long sentences,
and pretentious diction impress teachers.
3. Use the active, not the passive voice, in your prose. The active
voice places the subject before
the action. Active voice: On opening day, Alex Rodriguez blasted his
71st home run. Passive
voice: His 71st home run was blasted by Alex Rodriguez on opening day.
See
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html
for a good discussion of this
important point.
4. Avoid all first-person or surrogate references. By "surrogate" I
mean such terms as one, we,
the current writer.
5. Avoid discussion of method, intentions, and structure. There is no
need to intrude explicit
statements of authorial intention ("In the following pages, I am going
to argue that. . . ."-just state
the argument) or to deliver bulletins about the paper's structure
("This paper is divided into three
sections. . . ."-just state your three central arguments or
observations in a well-crafted opening
paragraph). I agree with writer Samuel Hynes that "the less obtrusive
the story-teller is, the better
for the story, and . . . when an assertive narrating personality
shoulders his [or her] way between
the reader and the subject, biography [and history] suffer. . . ."
6. Inclusion of frequent chronological references and their placement
at the beginnings of
sentences, paragraphs, phrases, and so forth contributes significantly
to more accessible and
dynamic prose.
7. It is easy to fall into stuffy, pompous, trite rhetorical patterns.
Double negatives, for example,
often only lend inflated importance to commonplace observations. The
gratuitous imputation of
erroneous views to the reader is another bad habit (as in: "It would be
unfair to conclude that
Nixon was a homosexual. . ."; or "It would be a gross overstatement to
say that the South won
the Civil War. . . ." In both cases, the reader is being warned against
making an error that the
author is actually suggesting).
8. Don't use lengthy block quotes. Always paraphrase and integrate into
your own prose. Confine
quoted words to short, distinctive selections, subordinating quoted
material to your own purposes
and your own language. Of course, you need always to give proper
attribution to quoted words
or distinctive ideas.
9. There is much dismissive talk these days about so-called "political
correctness." It is important
for serious people to weigh carefully their language when referring to
ethnicity, race, gender,
and other politically charged subjects. Many complaints about the need
to be "politically
correct" reflect a desire on the part of politically or culturally
dominant groups or interests to have
license in the language they use to characterize or refer to minority,
subordinated, or vulnerable
groups. Language is a powerful tool. Use it judiciously, carefully, and
with due respect for your
fellow human beings. No one ever accused Adolph Hitler of being
"politically correct."
Common errors
and bad habits
1. Run-on sentences.
When in doubt, start a new sentence. Short sentences work.
2. Misplaced modifiers.
("Jumping out of bed, my shoulder hurt"; "Based on this evidence, Prof.
Jones argues. . . ").
3. Quotations and punctuation marks. Remember these lifetime
rules: In American English--
Commas and periods always go inside quotation
marks
Colons and semi-colons always go outside quotation
marks
Question marks and exclamation
points (which latter you have no need for in this paper)
depend on the context.
4. Distinguish between
possessives, which take the apostrophe, and plurals, which don't. There
are specific rules for plural possessives (e.g., for nouns ending in s,
add apostrophe s to make the
possessive; but for pluralized nouns otherwise not ending in s, just
add the apostrophe).
Examples: Margaritas are made with tequila (correct). Margaritas' [or
Margarita's] are made with
lime juice (incorrect). The Margaritas' intoxicatory properties turned
me into a zombie (correct).
5. Watch out for its and it's. Its is the possessive, as in "I liked
the house because of its
roominess." It's is the contraction for it is, as in "It's going to
rain today."
6. Adjectives and adverbs--get rid of as many as possible. In general,
the higher the proportion of
verbs in your writing, the more vigorous and effective it will be.
Especially, strike the words
"very" and "interesting" from your written vocabulary.
6. Comparisons and parallels. Make sure that when you make or draw
them, the terms are
consistent with each other. ("In regard to onions, Harding's smelled
stronger than
Coolidge"-should be: stronger than "those of Coolidge" or "Coolidge's.")
7. Be a "which" hunter, substituting "that" wherever possible.
8. When dealing with human beings, "who" is the correct pronoun; "that"
is never acceptable (as
in: I met a man who [not that] once tended Sir Douglas Haig's horse).
9. In quotations, always make clear the identity of the person whom you
quote. Every quote
needs a "signature phrase," indicating the identity and/or standing of
the person being quoted.
*****
Aug. 25, 2006
Reading for today is the brief Wikipedia article on the Russian
Revolution. Themes briefly discussed were:
A. The pre-1917 American radical tradition
Socialism in America
The Industrial Workers of the World
B. The Impact of the Russian Revolution on American radicals
C. The general sense of euphoria and excitement associated with
the Bolshevik Revolution
I showed a clip from the 1981 film Reds,
directed by Warren Beatty, depicting American radical journalists John
Reed and Louise Bryant during the events leading up to the October
Revolution.
Quotes from Theodore Draper, The
Roots of American Communism (1957) and Tony Michels, A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists
in New York (2005). The Russian Revolution was vastly
inspiring to American socialists and even non-socialist liberals and
labor supporters. The Bolsheviks offered a way out of the ghastly
war, which in the fall of 1917 seemed endless. The Bolsheviks
offered a short cut to revolution instead of weary years of slowly
building a mass movement. All that counted, their example seemed
to show, was zeal, ideological purity, and boldness. In 1918,
Louis Fraina, a leading American left-wing socialist, published The Proletarian Revolution in Russia,
a collection of the speeches and writings of Lenin and Trotsky.
As presented here, the Bolshevik program seemed democratic,
egalitarian, sensitive to the problems of peasants and ethnic
minorities.
Here’s what some leading American non-extremist socialists--all of whom
soon became sharp critics of the Bolsheviks and of American
Communists-- had to say about the Bolshevik Revoltuion:
Morris Hillquit, key socialist intellectual and Socialist Party
candidate for NYC mayorship in 1918: The Bolshevik regime “is today in
the vanguard of democracy and social progress.”
Eugene V. Debs, perennial Socialist Party presidential candidate: “From
the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, I am a Bolshevik and
proud of it.”
Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Socialist newspaper Forverts: “Who can helpf but
rejoicing in their triumph? Who can help going into ecstasy over
the Socials spirit with which they have enthroned the country they now
rule?”
*****
August 28, 2006. Reading: Zieger, America's Great War, 188-203.
I. Russia, the
Revolution, and the War
1. Why was the October Revolution such a blow
to the Allied war effort?
2. Zieger says that Bolshevik actions, while
in theory directed against all the belligerents, in reality aided
Germany. How so?
3. What was the relationship of the Russian
Revolution to the labor movement; and why was this relationship so
significant at that time?
II. Intervention
1. What was the Allied justification for
military intervention in the Russian civil war that erupted after the
October revolution?
2. How did Wilson square his advocacy of
national self-determination with his decision to send US troops into
Russia?
III. Postwar Red Scare
1. We are inclined, as is the author, to
deplore and condemn the government’s repressive actions. But was
there any legitimate cause of concern about subversive or violent
activity that might be cited in justification?
2. The author attributes some on the
anti-radical excesses to “voluntarism.” Comment?
3. How does the author explain the “liberal”
Wilson’s permissive–indeed, his outright sponsorship–attitude toward
repression of dissenters?
4. The author indicates that Wilson’s
acquiescence in the Palmer Raids and other repressive actions actually
undermined his goals and hindered furtherance of his policies.
How so?
***
August 30, 2006--Discussion of “Socialism, Radicalism, Fascism”
(on-line reading)
I. Why is it important to get straight about these terms?
In the “short” 20th century (1914-1989) much public
discourse revolved around them
II. Definition and historical trajectory of socialism
Why is there “No Socialism in America”?
III. The “Left” spectrum–Old Left and New Left
A. Liberal (Progressive?)
B. Social Democrat
C. Socialist
D. Communist–Theory and “real existing”
1. Leninist–vanguard
2. Trotskyist–permanent
revolution
3. Stalinist–perversion?
4. Maoist–anti-colonial
5. Castro, Cuba?
E. Anarchist (and Anarcho-syndicalist)
IV. Fascism
Central features: chauvinism; militarism;
nationalism; authoritarianism. Economic system? Whatever
advances the political agenda. While some conservative
commentators conflate fascism and socialism, I do think it’s important
to distinguish along the lines noted above. While it is true that
socialist regimes, or regimes calling themselves socialist, have
resorted to these pathologies, it is equally true that fascism requires
and extols them.
V. Socialism in America today
****
It occurs to me that you could make a good movie out of the story
Polenberg tells in the first 117 pages of Fighting Faiths. How would
you cast the following parts?
Cast of Characters
Raymond Robins
Jack Reed
Samuel Lipman
Jacob Schwartz
Mollie Steimer
Emma Goldman
Peter Kropotkin
Woodrow Wilson
John Lord O’Brien
Thomas Tunney
Sergeant Edward Meagher
Harry Weinberger
Henry DeLamar Clayton, Jr.
Edgar Sisson
***
Questions for class, September 1.
Why was the New York City Jewish community such a hotbed of radicalism?
What are the central tenets of anarchism, as understood by Mollie
Steimer and her colleagues?
The anarchists' enthusiasm for the Bolshevik revolution soon proved to
be misplaced. How so?
What did government officials hope to accomplish with the passage of
the Sedition Act? Why did so many Republicans at least initially
oppose it?
Why does Polenberg attach so much importance to the wording of the
leaflets?
What do we learn from Fighting Faiths
about police practices and techniques of the early 20th century?
What intellectual and cultural baggage did
Francis G. Caffey
Henry Weinberger
Henry DeLamarr Clayton, Jr.
bring to the trial?
Who was Raymond Robins and why is he part of Polenberg's story?
*****
HIS 3931
September 6, 2006. Quiz on Fighting
Faiths.
1. Which of the following best characterizes the behavior and demeanor
of Federal Judge Clayton at the trial of Abrams et al.: a) as a devoted
civil libertarian, he consistently indicated his disapproval of the
government’s efforts to punish the defendants for their political
beliefs; b) although he was unsympathetic to the anarchists’ ideas, he
was scrupulously fair in his conduct of the trial; c) he treated the
defendants and their attorney in a demeaning and hostile manner; d) he
slept his way through most of the trial.
2. Who was Frederic C. Howe?: a) A wealthy upper class financial
backer of anarchist causes; b) a progressive reformer who grew
disillusioned over the government’s persecution of dissenters; c) the
head of the newly created Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); d) a
right-wing congressman responsible for the passage of the Sedition Act.
3. Which of the following statements best captures Polenberg’s
characterization of the Supreme Court in the 1910s: a) it was extremely
conservative in regard both to matters of political dissent and
economic policy; b) it was one of the most civil libertarian Courts in
US history; c) it was notable for the consistently high quality and
intellectual distinction of its members; d) its decisions made notable
advances in the field of civil rights for African Americans.
4. Which of the following judicial doctrines is most directly
associated with Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr.: a) “justice delayed is
justice denied”; b) “clear and present danger”; c) “one man, one vote”;
d) “separate but equal.”
5. Which of the following statements is the most accurate in
characterizing the government’s efforts to suppress dissent during the
World War I period (ca. 1915-21): a) for the first time in US history,
the federal government created a large and permanent surveillance
program; b) despite the pressures of war and domestic labor unrest, the
federal government did little to investigate or punish dissenters; c)
since non-citizens were protected by diplomatic immunity, government
repression and surveillance focused on its own citizens; d) astute
federal officials such as J. Edgar Hoover worked hard to ensure that
the civil liberties of those suspected of anti-war and radical activity
were respected.
****
September 8, 2006
Fighting Faiths, 243-370
Some
Themes and Questions
1. Frederic C. Howe and the dilemma of modern
liberalism--Conservatives might have said to him, "We told you
so." How might he have responded in kind?
2. What in your judgment is the current state of freedom of
speech in the US? Does "clear and present danger" have any
current relevance?
3. After the attacks of 9/11, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT
Act. How does it compare and contrast with the Sedition Act, both
as to targets and actual provisions?
4. Fighting Faiths
presents us with a slice of American life during the period c.
1917-1925. On the basis of the book, what true and significant
statements can be made about the character and texture of American life
in the era of World War I?
5. Compare and contrast the Bolshevik and the American
government's hostility to the anarchists.
****
September 11, 2006. Fried, American
Communism, 1-25
In the first few pages of American
Communism, Fried introduces and in some cases briefly defines or
comments on a number of key phrases or terms that will be important
throughout the course. He also makes some statements upon which
you may want to reflect as we progress.
Third International
"Left" Socialists
Foreign language
federations (or associations)
Communist Party/Communist Labor Party,
1919
Workers Party, 1921
The verb "to Bolshevize"
Democratic centralism; the vanguard
party
"Why did so many people join the
Communist movement?"
"Communism was akin to a religious
vocation." What was the New Model Army anyway?
"Communists inhabited a Manichean
universe."
Relationship of American Communists to
the USSR
**The
hostile critique
**Communist response
**Party leadership vs. rank-and-file and local CP bodies
How did American Communists deal with
renegade members? Cf. the USSR.
"The Party may have apologized for
Stalin's crimes, but it committed no crimes of its own."
The CPUSA "was no less legitimate than
any other party that ever existed in America."
What did Communist thinkers mean by
the term "American Exceptionalism"?
The Communist analysis of Fascism
Moscow show trials
Nazi-Soviet Pact
CPUSA in World War II
"The tremendous Communist expansion
abroad [after World War II] in which [US Communists] rejoiced was their
undoing here."
****
Quotes from Fried, “Summary and Overview,” Communism in
America.
September 13, 2006
"Why did so many people join the Communist movement?"
"The Party may have apologized for Stalin's crimes, but it committed no
crimes of its own."
The CPUSA "was no less legitimate than any other party that ever
existed in America."
“Unlovely as Communism may have been. . ., the realities it addressed
were a thousandfold unlovlier. So its partisans argued, and a
powerful argument it was.”
------
Quiz on Fried, 25-45; 47-51. September 13, 2006.
1. In Louis Fraina’s lexicon, the word “bourgeois” (or
bourgeoisie) refers to:
a) The landed
aristocracy
b) Ordinary working stiffs like you and me
c) The capitalist owners of the means of
production and their political lackeys
d) The revolutionary vanguard
2. According to Fraina, under capitalism “democracy”:
a) Was a valuable
advance that revolutionaries should retain and build on
b) Was a mockery in America because of the
disfranchisement of blacks
c) Was a fraud perpetrated on workers in that their
economic masters controlled the political process
d) Provided a means by which revolutionaries could
gain political power without resort to
violence
3. The main difference between the Communist Party and the
Communist Labor Party was:
a). The former was
revolutionary while the latter was reformist
b). The former was indigenous while the latter was
sponsored by the USSR
c). The former repudiated Lenin while the
latter idolized him
d) There were no substantial doctrinal differences
between the two groups
4. According to Communist doctrine, in a capitalist society,
existing labor unions:
a) Were to be
disbanded
b) Were to be reorganized so that each separate
craft or trade had its individual union
c) Were not to be tampered with so that workers
could gain better pay and shorter hours
d) Were to be transformed from their current
collaborative role into revolutionary bodies
5. The term “dictatorship of the proletariat”:
a) Was used by Communists who
repudiated Leninism
b) Was used by Communists as a counterpoise to the “dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie” that prevailed under capitalism
c) Was coined by anti-Communists in an effort to tar them with the
brush of authoritarianism
d) Was used by Communists to justify their policy of domination OVER
(not BY) workers
*****
September 15, 2006
Reading: Selections from Fried, ed., Communism
in America and Barrett, “Boring from within. . ..”
1. Foster’s syndicalist background is indicated by: a) his slavish
devotion to the Party line as handed down from Moscow; b) his
antagonism toward the IWW; c) his insistence on rank-and-file activism;
d) his friendship with AFL president Samuel Gompers.
2. The term “dual unions” refers to: a) labor organizations that
seek political as well as economic goals; b) labor organizations such
as the AFL that largely organized skilled workers; c) labor
organizations that seek immediate gains, eschewing revolutionary
action; d) in America, labor organizations set up to rival the American
Federation of Labor.
3. Which of the following statements best captures Barrett’s
overall assessment of Foster: a) he was a party hack; b) he was an
indigenous American radical, at least until he became entangled in the
coils of Party politics; c) although crude and illiterate, he
demonstrated great physical bravery in innumerable picket-line clashes;
d) his defection from the Communist Party revealed him to have been an
opportunist all along.
4. The term “boring from within” refers to: a) the tedium usually
associated with interminable Communist Party conventions; b) efforts to
spur radical activism through creation of separate radical unions; c)
efforts to work within established unions and political movements in
furtherance of Communist goals; d) the insistence of American
Communists to run their own affairs without dictation from Moscow.
5. In the events leading up to and including the 1924
presidential election campaign, American Communists: a) backed the
candidacy of Senator Robert M. La Follette unwaveringly; b) attempted
to gain control of the third party movement; c) urged their followers
to boycott the election as a “capitalist charade”; d) secretly
supported Republican Calvin Coolidge under the slogan “worse is better.”
Bonus: Pick out the quotation from J. Peters, “The Communist Party, A
Manual of Organization.”
a). “Workers of the world,
unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains!”
b). “Religion is the opiate of the masses.”
c) “Better Red than dead.”
d) “Our Party is the organized and most advanced section of the working
class.”
*****
September 18, 2006
Readings: Excerpts from Fried, ed.,
Communism in America, 53-72, 83-88
1. What problems to these readings engage?
The limits of
revolution [Crystal Eastman]
What is “proletarian” art?
How can the artist or writer best serve the
revolutionary cause?
What is the relationship between political agendas
and intellectual (and artistic) honesty?
2. Who are some of these people?
Crystal
Eastman
Max Eastman
Claude McKay
Carl Sandberg
Robert Minor
Mike Gold
Floyd Dell
3. How does the Sacco-Vanzetti case fit into today’s theme of the
relationship between artistic and intellectual life, on the one hand,
and advancing the revolutionary cause on the other?
—Comment on Mike
Gold’s indictment of New England and his belief that it has fallen from
grace; read Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “Justice Denied in
Massachusetts.”
****
September 20, 2006. Reading: Roger Keeran, “Communist
Influence in the Automobile Industry, 1920-1933: Paving the Way
for an Industrial Union,” Labor
History 20: 2 (Spring 1979): 189-226; excerpts by Foster,
Vorse, Gitlow in CIA.
First, distinguish between the two auto workers unions mentioned in the
article:
The Auto Workers Union (AWU), which was
a precursor to, but not a direct progenitor of, the United Automobile
Workers Union (UAW), which eventually organized the industry and
continues today as a large and influential labor organization.
Keeran uses the term “Fordism.” Is its meaning clear? Think
Fordism <> socialism.
Conditions in the auto plants in the 1920s
Why was there so little organization among auto workers before the
1930s?
How did the activities of Communists in the auto industry in the 1920s
fit into Foster’s strategy with respect to the role of labor
organization in advancing the revolutionary cause?
According to Keeran, what were the main contributions of Communists to
the cause of autoworkers?
What distinguished Keeran’s Communists from other labor activists
(e.g.: Logan and the Socialists; William Green and the AFL)
If Keeran were here today, what questions would you ask of him?
Gitlow and Vorse provide two first-hand accounts of Communist labor
activities among garment and textile workers in the 1920s.
Compare and contrast each to Keeran’s auto Communists; and to each
other.
Taking all these readings together–Foster; Keeran; Gitlow; Vorse–can we
make any useful and significant true statements on the subject
Communists and Labor in 1920s America?
****
September 22, 2006. Readings are the Wikipedia article on
Trotsky’s life and activities through the 1920s and James Cannon’s
commentary in a 1942 speech on the origins of Trotskyism in the US,
from CIA.
1. The question we asked Roger Keeran Wednesday was something
like this: The CP activists you depict in the automobile industry in
the 1920s certainly seem to have been honest, dedicated, and courageous
labor organizers and activists, battling against the odds to help
workers resist oppressive conditions and to develop organs of
resistance. But what was the connection between these brave
organizers, on the one hand, and the increasingly authoritarian Soviet
regime and the international apparatus it controlled on the other
hand? How aware were people such as Phil Raymond of the power
struggles in the USSR and of the regime’s emerging pathologies?
2. Who was Leon Trotsky and what role did he play in the Russian
Revolution and its early struggles?
3. What were the distinctive tenets of Trotskyism as of, say, the
mid-1920s?
Permanent revolution
and rejection of the notion of “socialism in one country”
Vanguard role of the party as the only voice of the
proletariat (Lenin)
–definition of democracy
**it is NOT free and open debate for all comers;
reserved for the proletariat and its vanguard spokesmen
**”bourgeois” democracy is simply part of the ruling
capitalists’ array of weapons with which to silence and deflect the
working class.
Trotskyists
had no compunction about destroying the institutions of “bourgeois”
democracy, unlike mainstream socialists who
sought to use
and build upon them.
Rapid and state-directed industrial advance
No compromise with capitalist or petit bourgeois
methods or practices
–All organs of what in the bourgeois world is called “civil
society”–i.e., nongovernmental, autonomous representations of various
groups’ interests and/or values [e.g., trade unions; religious
organizations; feminist groups] to be subsumed in the State and to be
enlisted in the struggle for communism.
Opposition to the “bureaucratization” of the Party
–But even under the flawed leadership of Stalin, the key step–ownership
and operation of the means of production by the workers–has been
achieved and must be preserved. Through thick and thin, the
Soviet Union was a workers’ state and had to be defended as such, even
as true revolutionaries critiqued its current, self-serving and
disastrous leadership.
4. Cannon describes more or less how Trotskyism got started in
the US but he doesn’t explain why he and his colleagues found Trotsky’s
program so compelling. It would seem to have to do with the need
of Communists, especially those abroad, to escape from the
“Thermadorian” reaction represented by Stalin. Key document is
Trotsky’s Draft Program of the Communist International: A Criticism of
Fundamentals, written in exile in Alma-Ata, in Kazakhstan. As a
delegate to the Sixth World Congress of Communist Parties in Moscow in
1928, Cannon and his Canadian counterpart Maurice Spector were given
this document as part of their convention materials packet.
Conference organizers provided this critique only because party leaders
intended to denounce it, and Trotsky; they would collect and presumably
destroy the copies of this pernicious document after Trotsky had been
duly trashed.
But Cannon, who had been troubled by the internecine fighting he had
observed and by the apparent movement away from revolutionary activism,
was transfixed. Later he said “It was the document that hit us
like a thunderbolt. It just knocked us completely over.”
He smuggled it back to the US and judiciously showed it to party
members likewise troubled by the course of events and by what they
deemed the sterile leadership of Party secretary Jay Lovestone.
One of Cannon’s associates was Max Shachtman, a young activist, editor,
and party member. Said Shachtman, “I will never want, or be able,
to forget the absolutely shattering effect. . . upon my smug ignorance
about the issue involved. . . that was produced by the first reading of
Trotsky’s classic Critique of the Draft Program of the Comintern.”
For Communists of Cannon’s and Shachtman’s sensibility, Trotsky offered
a way to oppose the bureaucratization of the revolution that Stalin was
imposing and a way to align themselves with what they, and Trotsky,
believed to be the true and unsullied aims of the Revolution, which had
attenuated during Lenin’s illness and after his death, as the sinister
Stalin maneuvered his way into increasingly dominant power. It
was a way around the petty infighting. And remember that Trotsky
was the genuine article–Lenin’s left-hand man; organizer of the Red
Army in its heroic victories over the forces of reaction; brilliant
publicist and orator.
It has been charged that Cannon and other Trotskyists welcomed the
political irrelevance into which their rebellion thrust them–they
didn’t have to face the compromises and dilemmas of the “real”
world. Loyal Communists sang this ditty:
When I grow to old to fight/
Then I’ll become a Trotskyite
5. Trotskyism’s role in American radicalism.
Over the years, American Trotskyists have identified
themselves with labor, civil rights, feminist, and anti-war
struggles. Some played key roles in the labor movement of the
1930s, in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and in the anti-war
movement (especially) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They
have stressed militant activism, disdain for bureaucratic institutions.
A notable feature of American Trotskyism, however,
has been its tendency to fracture ans split. A big split occurred
in 1940 when Shachtman broke with Cannon over how to characterize the
USSR. After WWII, those coming out of the Shactmanite tradition
continued to migrate, some of them (like Lovestone from a different
direction) morphing into strident anti-Soviet and even anti-Communist
activists, some of whom surface in the Reagan administration.
Others circled back into a version of the old Socialist party,
accepting the need to work within the system while retaining a critical
perspective on American society. Recently there has been a debate
over the extent to which certain neocons, notably Irving Kristol (and
by extension his son, William, an important policy intellectual and
speech writer in Republican administrations), formerly members of
Trotskyist organizations, have brought their “permanent revolution”
mindset into conservative politics.
*****
September 25, 2006
Lovestone advocates the notion of “American Exceptionalism”
Actually, this is a familiar trope. Where have
you heard it before?
According to Lovestone, writing in 1927, American capitalism was on the
“upgrade.” Although he does not provide detailed evidence for his
assessment, he does note some broad categories:
Export of capital from the US (i.e., overseas
investment)
Growth in productivity
Increasing combination of corporate entities
Developments that indicate the likelihood of the future expansion of US
capitalism:
Industrialization of the South
Exploitation of colonial resources (both ours and
those of other colonial powers)
Intensifying “expropriation of the agricultural
masses”
Let’s look at the numbers (link to stats)
Why does this “exceptionalism” pose particular problems for
Communists? What strategies or tactics does it seem to require?
Look at the critique of “American Exceptionalism” by S. Mingulin (pp.
91-92)
Fried refers to the “Third Period” in Communist history. What
were the first two periods? What are the implications of this
Third Period?
*****
September 27, 2006
CIA, 97-100; 106-09; 112-38; 220-26.
1. Third period. First two?
2. The Crash and the early years of the Great Depression in
America.
3. What was going on in the USSR between c. 1928 and 1934?
Massive
industrialization–massive reliance on what was in effect slave labor:
Labor camps (Gulag–Russian acronym for Chief
Administration of Corrective Labor Camps)–
Robert Tucker: “The number of labor campus grew
rapidly from the six . . . in 1930, and the number of inmates soared
from an estimated 30,000 in 1928 to nearly 2 million
in 1931.”
Forced collectivization, ethnic cleansing,
widespread application of terror in the countryside. War on the
peasantry, especially the “rich” peasants (kulaks).
Great famine of 1932-1934. Export of grain,
needed for the importation of technology and foreign exchange, in the
face of mass starvation in the Ukraine and Volga
regions. Millions of peasants were dying of starvation. Death
total probably in excess of 7 million.
Stalin does not permit outside relief.
Murder of Sergei Kirov on December 1, 1934–Probably
arranged by Stalin; opening round in a series of purges and executions.
Western reporters and visitors such as Walter
Duranty, Louis Fisher, George Bernard Shaw, and the Webbs ignore, cover
up, or simply fail to
notice these developments.
4. During the “Third Period,” what was the Communist attitude
toward other putatively left or progressive groups?
5. Fried distinguishes between the Communist Party and the
Communist movement.
6. Fried speaks of “an emerging Communist subculture in America.”
7. Trade Union Unity League–what happened to the Trade Union
Educational League?
8. There are many accounts of Communists’ roles in various
episodes of social protest–eviction resistance, unemployed
demonstrations, strikes.
*****
September 29, 2006
Martin reviews the historiography of the relationship between
Communists and blacks in the 1930s and 1940s. Are the lines of
historiographical development and the nature of the controversies clear
from his opening paragraphs?
Why would Communists, both domestic variety and in the USSR, focus so
much attention on the problems of black Americans?
How did the International Labor Defense’s approach to defending black
victims of racist justice differ from that of the NAACP?
There is a rather abrupt shift in the ILD’s attitude toward the
NAACP–from bitter denunciation (see Allen’s 1933 diatribe, below) to
more or less friendly cooperation. Why the change in agenda?
James S. Allen, a pioneering Marxist historian of African American
life, invokes the names of “The Negro misleaders, from Booker T.
Washington to DuBois and Garvey. . . .” Who were these men and
why would Allen and his ilk regard them as “misleaders”?
Allen and others regard as one of the principal goals of the Scottsboro
defense “the winning of the white workers [in the South] and swinging
them into action on the specific issues as they are raised in the
Scottsboro case.” What is Allen’s premise here? Doesn’t
this strategy seem counter-intuitive?
Martin offers a defense of the ILD–and presumably the CP more
generally–from the charge that during WWII they abandoned their concern
with justice for blacks so as to more forcefully further the war effort.
*****
Oct. 2–Communism and Culture in the 1930s. CIA, 100-03;
158-212
It would be hard to examine all the questions of aesthetics and
politics raised by the reading, especially since few of us in the class
will have read the writers commonly referred to. Those interested
in pursuing this subject may want to consult Daniel Aaron’s classic
study, Writers on the Left: Episodes
in American Literary Communism (1961) and Michael Denning’s The Cultural Front: The Laboring of
American Culture in the Twentieth Century (1996). I
confine my questions to issues relating to the role of the
writer-artist-intellectual and its relationship to the politics of
revolution and depression.
Why were so many writers, artists, and intellectuals attracted to the
Soviet Union (reference is the letter of support for Foster and Ford,
1932)?
How did those who did so anticipate that the lives of writers and
artists would be better under socialism?
The manifesto says that “it would be much easier to build Socialism in
the US than in Russia.” How so?
The manifesto says that intellectual workers cannot “remain neutral in
the struggle between capitalism and Communism, nor can they by their
own independent action effect any social change. Their choice is
between serving either as the cultural lieutenants of the capitalist
class or as allies and fellow travelers of the working class.”
Interestingly, Edmund Wilson put it differently in “The Case of the
Author,” also 1932: You either have to believe in the revolution or
“accept the creed of one of the churches.” (162)
Calverton says “American workers must learn to hate.” In his
view, what is the role of intellectuals vis-a-vis the working class?
Granville Hicks says that “the central fact in American life is the
class struggle.” Previous writers such as Whitman, Thoreau,
Howells intuitively, but only partially, grasped this. They are
part of “The Great Tradition.” But our generation of writers can
fulfill the early promise that they showed. What are the unique
opportunities and challenges of the present (i.e., 1930s) generation of
writers?
Philip Rahv and Wallace Phelps, while endorsing the effort to place the
working class at the center of literary and artistic production, offer
a cautionary note.
*****
Oct. 4–The Popular Front. CIA, 227-54; 276-306
It’s important to stress that the term “Popular Front” does not refer
only, or even primarily, to developments within the USA. The
Popular Front as a political movement ostensibly uniting all elements
on the Left in a program that combined domestic reform and anti-fascism
gained power briefly in France in the second half of 1936. And
the Popular Front’s most famous–and in some ways, most
notorious–incarnation occurred in Spain during the Spanish Civil War,
July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939.
1. First, let’s look at fascism. What is your understanding
of its character, trajectory, historical role? What are the attributes
or components of fascism as a system of social and political
organization?
2. How did Communists interpret fascism? That is, how would
a Marxist of vintage c. 1935 place fascism, as it appeared in Germany
and Italy, in terms of its origins, relationship to capitalism, and
connection to “bourgeois” culture?
3. Backing up a bit, in a general sense, how did
Communists–especially during the Third Period–view their rivals on the
Left–e.g., Socialists, Social Democrats, Trotskyists, liberals,
laborites? How did Communists finesse the 1936 presidential
election?
4. Students of the period–indeed, men and women of the
period–make a distinction between a “United Front” and a “Popular
Front.” Any notions as to the difference/distinction?
5. What were the central features of the Popular Front as a
strategy?
6. The CPUSA fostered the development of “front” organizations,
notably the National Negro Congress and the American League Against War
and Fascism. The term “front” in this sense grew to have sinister
meanings. How did these “fronts” operate? What was their
purpose? Why was there no labor “front,” in view of the fact that
workers were so central to all Communist efforts?
7. Historians are divided as to whether the CP’s turn to the
Popular Front was essentially a tactical maneuver launched to rally
defense of the Soviet Union; or a genuine retreat from the belief that
Communism represented the only path to human liberation.
8. The Popular Front era was, in Harvey Klehr’s words, “they
heyday of American Communism.” How did Communist leaders such as
Earl Browder attempt to establish the patriotic bona fides of the CPUSA?
***
October 9–Women and the CPUSA
Oct. 11-Labor in the 1930s. CIA, 254-76
Some further
thoughts on women and the CPUSA:
1. How does capitalism exploit women?–Reserve army of labor;
useful for depressing men’s wages and discouraging organization
2. Housework: Honorable, productive labor; or domestic
servitude?–The Mary Inman controversy and its historiographical
aftermath. In Woman’s Defense (1940). Did she not give the
Party’s blessing to domestic servitude?
3. How does the Party treat its women?–Male chauvinism was alive
and well. In the crunch, gender was less important than race and,
especially, class.
4. What is to be done?
Within the Party
Within society at large–socialized domestic life;
socialized child-rearing; just as education and indoctrination of the
young is (at least partially) socialized.
5. Why women should join the Communist Party–Example of the
USSR. In destroying capitalism, the basis for female
subordination will be eliminated. Communists are the partisans of
the Future. If we have a “woman problem,” it is best resolved by
working in and through the most socially progressive force, i.e., the
Communist Party.
Labor
1. Why was “labor” so important to Communists?
2. How had Communists related to labor during the first 15 years
of the party’s history in the US (1919-34)?
3. Why was the decade of the 1930s such a propitious time for
Communist advance on the labor front?
4. What was there about the CIO that made it so attractive to
Communists?
5. What role did Communists play in launching and building the
CIO?
*****
Write an esssay on the following: It is June 20, 1941. You
are a 45-year-old American member of the Communist Party, which you
joined in 1919. A valued friend who is not a Party-member,
accosts you, asking “How can you continue to be a member of an
organization that takes its orders from Moscow and is thus linked to
the Soviet regime, which has perpetrated crimes against humanity and
is, as we speak, in effect allied with Nazi Germany.” How do you
respond?
*****
It is important to review the instructions for take-home exams (see the
link to Exams, above). In particular, note the following (from
the syllabus instructions on take-home exams):
In developing your response to the question you choose to write on, in
addition to reference to relevant class-required readings, select a
relevant article on the subject from a scholarly journal for use in
preparing your essay. [Give a full and complete citation to
this article–author, title of article, journal, date of publication].
How do I find a “relevant article,” you may ask. Here are some
thoughts:
Carefully examine the
bibliographical and footnote material in class-required readings for
possible outside sources.
Use keyword searches in
JSTOR, Project Muse, and other electronic journal locator sites.
Consult John Haynes’s
comprehensive bibliography, to wit:
http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page94.html
Don’t just take
the first one you stumble on. Look for an article that will help
you to develop a distinctive approach to the question, one that will
add information and/or
insights to your essay and help it to be more than a regurgitation of
assigned material.
Consult with me either in person
or via e-mail about your choices. This works best when you do
some homework first and have a couple of titles in hand before seeking
my response.
*****
In referring to class-assigned readings and to your chosen essay, be
sure to provide citations in appropriate places. The same holds
true with the specific documents or readings found in Fried, Communism
in America. If you are using the linking or introductory material
written by Fried, make its provenance clear. These citations can
be informal and can either be integrated into the text or placed in
parentheses.
Examples:
*** Communists in the auto industry have been courageous and effective
in calling attention to unsafe and harsh working conditions.
(Keeran, 203-04)
***As Angelo Herndon puts it, “the unity and organization of black and
white workers” is essential. (Herndon, 1937, in Fried, CIA, 158)
***Communists have been particularly innovative and effective in
bringing cultural opportunities to ordinary people. (Fried, 97)
*****
October 13, 2006
Trials and Purges
Harvey Klehr: “Leon Trotsky had orchestrated the
most extensive and diabolical plot in all of history. He had
somehow united left-win Zinovievites, right-wing Bukharinites, and
disgruntled Stalinites with his own followers and then plotted with
both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan to overthrow the Soviet regime and
install capitalism.” The period of the trials runs from the
murder of Kirov on December 1, 1934 through March of 1938. The
trials of leading Bolsheviks, Old Revolutionaries, and military leaders
begin in August, 1936, and run through 1937 and 1938. Note what
was happening in the US involving the CPUSA at this time:
August, 1936–Trials of Zinoviev and
Kamenev; FDR election campaign and CPde facto support
Early 1937–Radek and Pyatakov trials; Flint Sit-Down strike and role of
Mortimer and other Communists in
March 1938–Bukharin and other Lenin inner circle trials; Ongoing
struggles to build the CIO
August 20, 1940–Trotsky murdered in Mexico; US about to adopt peacetime
conscription
Some American Communists couldn’t swallow the trials and
executions. Note “Charles Shipman”’s memoir in CIA. But most Party leaders
defended the trials and denigrated anyone who questioned them.
Note, e.g., the selection from R. Lang. Early in 1937, Browder
told Party members that Trotsky was “the advance agent of fascism and
war throughout the world.” A Daily
Worker editorial in 1937 hailed the execution of Marshal
Tukhachevsky, a hero of the Russian Civil War, and fellow
officers. Their trial and execution, said the newspaper, was “a
crushing blow to the advance Fascist guard of the capitalist
encirclement of the Soviet Union.” Mike Gold called Trotsky “the most
horrible Judas of all history.”
Note too that a number of Western non-Communist
observers validated the trials. E.g., US Ambassador to the USSR
Joseph Davies and NY Times
correspondent Walter Duranty (who later received the Pulitzer Prize for
his reportage in Russia). Corliss Lamont, a well-to-do supporter
of Party causes, took the executions in stride, noting that “the Soviet
people are not talking as much about these trials as some people in
America,” which was doubtless true. Ella Winter, journalist and
economist and wife of Lincoln Steffens, likened Trotsky to John Wilkes
Booth.
When non-Communist American radicals rose to
Trotsky’s defense (and note the Dewey Commission of the spring of
1937), they were villified. Any questioning of the Moscow Trials
and of Trotsky’s guilt as a sabateur, Fascist agent, and plotter of the
murder of Stalin was regarded as giving aid and comfort to the
anti-Soviet enemy. An open letter in defense of the trials and in
criticism of intellectuals who came to Trotsky’s defense was signed by
88 high-profile writers and intellectuals, including Theodore Dreiser,
Lillian Hellman, Heywood Broun, Mary Van Kleek, Louis Fischer,
Granville Hicks, and Henry Roth. When Waldo Frank, prominent
pro-Soviet writer, declared that even though they were mistaken,
defenders of a fair trial for Trotsky were sincere and honorable,
Browder severed all Party relations with him, saying: “When the
democratic front is fighting the open enemy before us, it shall not be
attacked from the rear by those who pretend to be part of it.”
All quotes are from Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism: The
Depression Decade (1984), 358-61.
*****
SPECIAL NOTICE: BY POPULAR
DEMAND, THE DUE DATE FOR THE SECOND PART OF THE TERM PROJECT HAS BEEN
MOVED FROM FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, TO FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3.
October 23, 2006
Reading: Irving Howe and Louis Coser, The
American Communist Party: A Critical History (1957; 1962),
405-36
1. In his youth, Irving Howe was a Trotskyist. In his later
years (he died in 1994) he was a democratic socialist.
2. Compare and contrast Coser and Howe’s treatment of the Party’s
relation to civil rights with that found in Charles H. Martin, "The
International Labor Defense and Black America” (see syllabus entry for
September 29).
3. The role of Communists in the labor movement during World War
II was particularly controversial, both during the war and long
after. Are the following matters clear:
**How strong was the Communist presence in the WWII
labor movement?
**The CP’s attitude toward the No-Strike Pledge
**The CP’s attitude toward National Service
legislation
**The CP’s attitude toward incentive pay plans
**The CP’s attitude toward labor-management
cooperation.
**Continuing the no-strike pledge after the war?
4. Why were Communists during World War II so scathing–not to say
vicious–in their attacks on fellow socialists such as Norman Thomas?
5. Even allowing for the exigencies of the war against fascism,
how did Browder square his belief in socialism with his promise to work
within the system for progressive change?
6. Howe and Coser make some thoughtful observations about the
differences between those Americans who in 1917-18 sympathized with the
Bolshevik revolution and who joined the party in the 1920s and those
who embraced the Party during World War II.
7. Some scholars more sympathetic than Coser and Howe to
the problems faced by Communists during World War II have argued that
while Browder and other top leaders may have gone overboard in
disavowing militancy and progressive activism during the war,
rank-and-file Communists continued to fight the good fight in the
factories and neighborhoods, regardless of the Party’s official
position, but within the context of support for the war effort.
Additional notes on World War II
Until at least the middle of 1944, the USSR absorbed at least 80% of
the German
war effort.
Stalingrad, September, 1942-January 1943:
32 German divisions destroyed; 16 others nearly so
12,000 cannon and mortars destroyed or captured
3500 tanks
3000 planes
Kursk, July-August, 1943. Germans employ 50 divisions (900t men);
2700 tanks;
10,000 guns. Soviets counter with 2.5 million men.
Richard Overy: a “remarkable resurgence of Soviet fighting power.
. . After a year and
a half of shattering defeats.” “No other society in the
Second World War was so
mobilised so extensively, or shared such sacrifices.”
Soviet casualties. 5 million military dead; 5 million POWS, 80%
of whom died or
were killed in captivity. 10 million civilian deaths.
*****
October 25, 2006. Continued discussion of US Communists in World
War II--readings from CIA, pp
325-36. Showed excerpts from the film The North Star
*****
Quiz on Adler and Paterson, "Red Fascism"; October 27, 2006
Print it out and bring it to class. As always, students must
attend entire class session to get quiz credit..
1. According to the authors, analogies between the USSR and Nazi
Germany are misleading primarily because the policy makers and opinion
leaders who promoted them failed to recognize the expansionist and
authoritarian proclivities of the Soviet Union.
2. According to the authors, Soviet Communism, for all its many
faults and excesses, was based on a humanistic world view, in contrast
to the genocidal world view properly associated with fascism.
3. George Kennan believed that, despite its many pathologies, the
USSR posed no significant military threat to the US and its European
allies in the wake of World War II.
4. The word “totalitarianism” is too broad and ill-defined to be
useful in the analysis of modern political systems.
5. Insistence on the common totalitarianism of the USSR and Nazi
Germany prevented US policy makers and commentators from coming to
reasonable accommodation with the Soviet Union in the wake of World War
II.
***
Adler and Paterson, "Red Fascism"; October 27, 2006.
Discussion
1. When was this article published and in what publication?
2. What sources did the authors use?
3. What was at stake in this article? Are there any
inferences of topical (as of 1968) significance that a reader of
this article might have drawn from their argument?
4. Lets look at the substance:
Soviet Communism and
European fascism were (and are) fundamentally different ideologies
embedded in fundamentally different political regimes
There are, it is true, some (superficial?)
similarities, such as:
Authoritarian leadership
Widespread repression of dissent
and alternative social views & practices
Systematic exploitation and
victimization of certain enemies of the regime (i.e., bourgeoisie,
“rich” peasants/ /Jews, Slavs, Romany)
But note the differences:
Role of military, war
Ideological basis of regime
Racial/nationalistic impulses
Rational vs. irrational bases of
foreign policy
5. Who was George Kennan and why do the authors point
particularly to his views and his influence? (p. 1057)
6. Why might those fearful of the Soviet Union regard Communism
as even more dangerous than fascism?
7. The authors regard the terms “Munich” and “appeasement” as
being particularly inapt and misleading when applied to the post-war
Soviet Union. How so?
8. The authors point to the publication of documents relating to
the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 and the interpretation given to this
agreement as a significant factor in encouraging anti-Soviet
feeling. Likewise with respect to trade.
9. “George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Arthur Koestler helped
foster the crude and superficial analogy” between fascism and Communism
that distorted Americans’ understanding of the postwar world and
misdirected US foreign policy.
10. Critique
The authors make only the most perfunctory reference to the heinous
character of the Soviet regime. Stalin killed more than Hitler,
to say nothing of Mao. Nor was race-and-ethnicity
absent from Soviet atrocities: Central Asian peoples; Jews.
Authors ignore ties between Germany and Russia, predating 1939.
Note Soviet emulation of German population control measures dating from
WWI, e.g. Treatment of Nazi-Soviet Pact is perfunctory and
incurious.
Authors ignore the Soviet Union’s international apparatus. There
was no German equivalent to the Comintern nor little effort–and that
was bumbling and inept–to manipulate domestic politics.
You could apply the argument to US enlistment in the war against
Germany. We were the provocative ones. Germany posed no
direct threat to any vital US interest. Distaste for the regime
should not dictate foreign or military policy. “You can do
business with Germany.” There was, argues conservative political
scientist Bruce Russett, “No clear and present danger” in 1941.
Authoritarianism vs. totalitarianism–Jeanne Kirkpatrick.
11. Truman’s dilemmas: How did you convince an insular people
that they had to bear the frustration and expense of unaccustomed
ongoing involvement in world affairs? How did you at once make
use of and limit the influence of the more vociferous
anti-Communists? How did you convince “men of good hope,” who
were particularly important in your own party, of the need to be
skeptical and even adversarial of a Soviet Union that rhetorically
advanced the kinds of progressive aspirations shared by the domestic
labor left?
*****
October 30, 2006
Spies
Questions and comments re Katherine A. S. Sibley, “Soviet
Military-Industrial Espionage in the United States and the Emergence of
an Espionage Paradigm in US-Soviet Relations, 1941-45,” American Communist History 2: 1
(June 2003): 21-62.
Note Venona transcripts 1995
June 6, 1945--FBI finds Amerasia Papers
June 26, 1945–UN Charter signed
Potsdam–July 17 lasting to August 2
August 6, 1945–Hiroshima
August 1945–Elizabeth Bentley defects to FBI
June 1948–Soviets blockade Berlin
July 31, 1948–Bentley testifies before HUAC, fingers
Lauchlin Currie, Harry Dexter White; outlines Soviet espionage
operations
August 3, 1948–Chambers fingers Alger Hiss at HUAC hearing
August 5, 1948--President Truman, at a press conference, calls the HUAC
probe "a red herring."
August 13, 1948–Harry Dexter White denies all at HUAC hearing; dies of
heart attack Aug. 16
December 2, 1948--Chambers, accompanied by HUAC investigators, removes
cans of undeveloped film allegedly given to him by Hiss from a
hollowed-out
pumpkin on his Maryland
farm
July 7, 1949--The jury deadlocks in the first Hiss trial.
September 23, 1949–Truman announces Soviet nuclear test
October 1, 1949–Mao Proclaims Peoples Republic of China
December 1949–first Hiss trial ends in hung jury
January 1950–Klaus Fuchs confesses to British intelligence; links Harry
Gold and thus David Greenglass; he is Ethel Rosenberg’s brother
January 21, 1950–Hiss convicted of perjury in second trial
February 9, 1950–McCarthy’s Wheeling speech
May 23, 1950–Harry Gold is arrested
June 25, 1950–Korean War starts
March 6, 1951–Rosenberg Trial begins
March 29, 1951–Rosenberg’s convicted
June 19, 1953–Rosenbergs executed
****
November 1, 2006. Quiz on Dan Georgakas, “The Hollywood Reds: 50
Years Later,” American Communist
History, 2: 1 (2003): 63-76
1. With which of the following statements about Hollywood in the
1930s and 1940s would Dan Georgakas agree: a) Communists dominated the
US motion picture industry; b) despite the hysterical ravings of
anti-Communist zealots, there is no evidence of any Communist influence
in the US film industry; c) many Communists worked in diverse
capacities in the film industry; d) while there is evidence of
Communists working in the film industry, it is clear that they made no
effort to inject political content into the films on which they worked.
2. Apart from several films produced during World War II that
exhibited blatantly pro-Soviet sentiments, in which of the following
areas were Communist and Communist-oriented writers, directors, and
other film makers most successful in injecting their views: a) women’s
rights; b) civil rights for Blacks; c) labor rights; d) tariff reform.
3. Pro-Soviet films such as North Star and Mission to Moscow,
produced during World War II: a) were blacklisted by the federal
government; b) ironically, did not involve Communists or Communist
sympathizers in their writing or production; c) were dismal box-office
flops; d) reflected the dominant World War II ethos that promoted
Allied unity.
4. Georgakas faults the “Hollywood Reds” for: a) ignoring or
whitewashing the injustices associated with Stalinism; b) polluting
American films with the virus of Communism; c) lending their talents to
such frivolous film genres as slapstick comedies and shoot-em-up
westerns; d) refusing to “name names” during congressional
investigations into Communism in the film industry.
5. With which of these statements would Georgakas be most likely
to agree: a) the purge of the Hollywood Reds robbed the motion picture
industry of a critical source of talent and thus hastened the decline
of the industry; b) the purge of the Hollywood Reds, while sometimes
employing regrettable tactics, was a necessary step in sustaining the
industry’s integrity; c) there is little evidence to show that the
content of films by Hollywood Reds was in any way subversive of
American ideals; d) the whole issue of Communists-in-Hollywood is
overblown and inconsequential.
****
November 3. Purging the Labor Movement. CIA, 371-75; Robert Zieger,
American Workers, American Unions, pp.123-34 (coursepack)
1. Why was labor a particular fierce and important battleground
during the postwar Communist controversy?
2. Why did the CIO, but not the AFL, have a “Communist problem”?
3. Before 1948 CIO leaders tolerated Communists. Why attack
them now?
4. Some historians believe that in ousting the so-called “pro-Soviet”
unions, the CIO shot itself in the foot and severely crippled the
entire labor movement.
Throughout the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, conflict raged
between Communists and anti-Communists in the labor movement,
especially within the CIO.
Communists and their allies claimed that mainstream unionists were
pandering to right wing extremists. They red-baited their
opponents and embraced the needlessly anti-Soviet US foreign policy
initiatives of Truman and his advisors in pathetic hopes of currying
favor with politicians and employers, meanwhile abandoning their
progressive heritage.
Anti-Communists in the labor movement countered that Communists and
their allies were tools of the Soviet Union who ignored the USSR’s vast
crimes against workers and socialists. The labor movement, they
believed, could not be successful or morally legitimate without
severing any connections with the CP.
*****
November 6, 2006
Civil Rights
Chronology, 1941-1965
April 1941–A. Philip Randolph threatens March on Washington
June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 8802 creating
FEPC
April 3, 1944–SC in Smith v.
Allwright
invalidates white primary
Dec. 5, 1946–Truman creates President’s Committee on Civil Rights
October 29, 1947: The President's Committee on Civil Rights issues its
landmark report, To Secure These
Rights
April, 1947–Jackie Robinson desegregates Major League Baseball
Fall, 1947–First Freedom Rides
June, 1948–Democratic convention adopts strong civil rights plank;
southern delegates walk
July 26, 1948: President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, calling for
desegregation of armed forces
September 4, 1949–Peekskill Riot
May 17, 1954–Brown v. Board of
Education
April 18-April 24, 1955–Bandung Conference
Dec. 5, 1955–Montgomery Bus Boycott begins
February 1, 1960–Sit-ins begin, Greensboro, NC
March 21, 1960--Sharpville Massacre, South Africa
December
1, 1960--Patrice Lumumba arrested; executed January 21, 1961
May 4, 1961--Thirteen black and white Freedom Riders left Washington,
D.C.
May 25, 1963--Nelson Mandella jailed for life
August 28, 1963–March on Washington
July 2, 1964–Civil Rights Act signed into law by President Johnson
August 6, 1965–Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon
Johnson
------
November 6, 2006
Communists and Civil Rights
1. Recall the various approaches to the problems of African
Americans, to wit:
A. Black Zion (Third Period)
B. Scottsboro, Angelo Herndon
2. Communists, Race, and the Labor Movement
A. Insistence on inter-racial unionism
1. Packinghouse Workers
2. Food and Tobacco Workers
B. Relationship between union activism and
civic involvement
1. Winston-Salem
2. Memphis
3. Birmingham Area
4. Northern cities
–Detroit,
Chicago, New York
3. Communists, African Americans, and Anti-Colonialism
A. Solidarity with Ethiopia
B. Max Yergan and the Council on African
Affairs
C. Reaction to Churchill’s “Iron Curtain”
speech of March, 1946
D. DuBois joins CP in 1961; Angela Davis in
1968
4. The Cold War and mainstream civil rights
A. NAACP backs off from militant
anti-colonialism, backs US foreign policy
B. Pulls back from focus on economic issues;
stresses legal arena, voting, education
C. Cold War imperatives limit scope of Civil Rights initiatives
but hasten legislative and social achievement
******
November 8, 2006. Reading: Mary S. McAuliffe, “Liberals and
the Communist Control Act of 1954,”Journal
of American History 63: (September, 1976): 351-367
1. In the 1950s, Hubert Humphrey was: a) Eisenhower’s
vice-president; b) a prominent liberal Democratic senator; c) a
Communist Party functionary; d) a member of the Supreme Court.
2. Writing in 1976, McAuliffe notes that historians have
“recently” been re-examining the post-World War II “Red Scare” era
along these lines: a) stressing liberal complicity in anti-Communist
excesses; b) finally recognizing that Communism posed a dire threat to
the nation; c) finding that McCarthy was essentially right in most of
his charges; d) holding that suppression of civil liberties was not so
extensive as some contemporaries had believed.
3. The Communist Control Act of 1954: a) outlawed socialism; b)
repealed the earlier Internal Security Act of 1950; c) outlawed, but
did not criminalize, membership in the Communist Party; d) was declared
unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.
4. Strong opposition to the Communist Control Act was exhibited
by: a) a large minority of the US Senate; b) Republican congressional
leaders; c) a handful of marginal liberals and socialists; d) the
Eisenhower administration.
5. According to McAuliffe, the lesson of the Communist Control
Act is that: a) it was wrong to underestimate the Communist threat; b)
the Eisenhower administration’s ardent defense of civil liberties
merits acknowledgment and praise; c) the pervasiveness of the Red Scare
jeopardized civil liberties; d) Humphrey and his allies were cynical
and insincere.
*****
Nov. 13, 2006. James
A. Schnur, "Cold Warriors in
the Hot Sunshine:
USF and the Johns Committee," Journal of the Tampa Historical
Society, 18 (November
1992). Showed the film "Behind Closed Doors" on the Johns
Committee; made remarks based on Corey Robin's review of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War
Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government.
***
November 15. Robert H. Zieger, "The Evolving
Cold
War," American
Communist History 3: 1 (2004): 3-24 (Course Reserve)
1. In the immediate post-war years ( c. 1945-50), in which of the
following institutions did Communists play active leadership roles: a)
the Democratic Party; b) the Roman Catholic Church; c) the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People; d) the CIO.
2. Which of the follow events or developments is most closely
associated with the marginalization of Communism as a relatively
popular political force in American life: a) the Popular Front; b)
Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin; c) the Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court decision; d) the Cuban Missile Crisis.
3. President Eisenhower discounted the importance of the Soviet
launch of Sputnik on the grounds that: a) the Soviets had to rely on
German scientists for their missile program; b) the Sputnik launch had
no significant military implications; c) the US was far ahead of the
USSR in the development of consumer goods; d) the US was perfecting a
Strategic Defense Initiative that could thwart any Soviet missile
attack.
4. In the late 1950s, observers and critics such as Walter
Lippmann warned of impending national crisis, citing in particular: a)
the American people’s indulgent and feckless lifestyle; b) the power of
the so-called “military-industrial complex”; c) the agitation
surrounding the civil rights movement; d) Communist subversion and
espionage.
5. Which of the following statements best captures the author’s
central point: a) the Communist threat was greater after Sputnik than
it had been just after World War II; b) Stalin’s death in effect ended
the Cold War; c) post-war fears that Americans might be seduced by the
appeal of Communism were replaced after 1957 by fears that consumer
plenty had rendered us unfit to meet the Communist challenge; d)
post-Sputnik pundits who depicted the Soviet Union as efficient and
technologically advanced were soon proved wrong.
*****
November 20,
2006.
Whitfield to page76.
“Communism could represent itself as the activated legacy of the
Enlightenment.” (3)
Progressives or Stalinists? What’s in a name?
Communism was a threat to the United States but was it a threat in the
United States? (4)
Who said this:
Eisenhower is no conservative. “He is a golfer.”
“At 1 a.m., of this day, World Communism achieved its greatest victory
of the decade. . . .” (59)
“When a young man files an application . . .we do not ask if he was the
smartest boy in his class. . . . We want to know if he respects
his parents, reveres God, honors his flag. . . .”
“Mr. Stevenson has been guilty. . . of spreading pro-Communist
propaganda. . . he has attacked with violent fury the economic system
of the United States.” (69)
“Why would anybody be interested in some old man who was a
failure?” (71)
She “seemed to be only a product but she turned out to be a way of
life.” (71)
“No man who owns his own house and lot can be a communist. He has
too much to do.” (73)
***
November 29, December 1. The film Seeing Red was shown. The
material in this film is important and knowledge of it may be necessary
for a strong performance on the final exam. Anyone having missed
the film, or part of it, can view it via the Reserve Room in Library
West, where it has been put on 2 hour reserve, starting Monday,
December 4.
*****
Sessions
HIS 3931. December 4,
2006.
Leo P. Ribuffo, "The Complexity of American Communism," in Ribuffo, Right Center Left: Essays in
American History (1992), 129-160
1. According to Ribuffo’s recapitulation of the history of
American Communism, when did the Communist Party enjoy its greatest
acceptance and influence? Was it: a) during World War II; b)
during the “Third Period”; c) in the 1950s; d) after the Khrushchev
revelations of Stalin’s crimes?
2. “Revisionist” historians of the 1970s and 1980s, according to
Ribuffo: a) have tended to highlight the achievements and contributions
of American Communists rather than their errors and misdeeds; b) have
been guilty of the scholarly equivalent of McCarthyism; c) achieved an
objective, even scientific, perspective on the once-controversial issue
of Communism; d) have tended to ignore the Party’s rank and file while
focusing on the activities of the top leadership.
3. While Ribuffo seeks to convey an even-handed tone to his
essay, careful readers will find it: a) essentially pro-Communist; b)
particularly harsh on “Vital Center” liberals; c) anti-Catholic; d)
pro-liberal.
4. According to Ribuffo, the term “Stalinism” is misleading
and unproductive because it: a) gives too much credit to the Soviet
dictator; b) masks the diversity and variety among Communist Party
members in the US; c) detracts attention from the achievements of
native Communists such as Browder and Foster; d) conveys a sense of
sinister domination that is unfair to the much-maligned Soviet leader.
5. In general, Ribuffo sees US Communists of the 1930-60 period
as: a) mentally unbalanced neurotics; b) heroic defenders of civil
rights and civil liberties; c) men and women who embraced Communism as
a kind of secular religion; d) diverse and variegated in their
political beliefs and activities.
*****
Final exam
Final exam. HIS 3931. Spring 2006. The exam has to be
turned in on or before 2:30 pm on December 14. You can put it in the
cardboard box marked “Exams” in the box beside the door to my office,
236 Keene-Flint, anytime after 9:00 a.m. on December 7 or give it to me
in our regular classroom during the scheduled exam period, which is
12:30-2:30 pm on December 14. It is imperative that you retain an
identical copy of the paper that you turn in, whether you put it in the
box or hand it to me personally. Please staple the multiple
choice answer sheet to the written part of the exam.
Part 1. Answer all 10 multiple choice questions on the attached
answer sheet. Be sure to put your name on the sheet and staple it
to the essay part of your exam. These answers are worth 3 points
each, for a total of 30 points.
1. According to Richard Polenberg, anarchists such as Mollie
Stiemer and her colleagues were: a) dangerous radicals deserving of
severe repression; b) Communists in all but name; c) principled
idealists victimized by both the Communist left and the bourgeois
right; d) opposed from the outset to the Bolshevik revolution.
2. During the 1920s, William Z. Foster: a) stressed the need of
Communists to work with and through existing labor organizations; b)
was ousted as CP general secretary because of so-called “right-wing
deviationism”; c) originated the Trade Union Educational League, whose
purpose was to destroy the AFL and other mainstream labor
organizations; d) repudiated the doctrine of “socialism in one country.”
3. The Comintern’s “Third Period” featured: a) the need for
Communists to make common cause with socialists, social democrats, and
liberals against emerging fascism; b) repudiation of Josef Stalin’s
dictatorial leadership; c) a belief that capitalism was entering into a
deep internal crisis, which required Communists to assume a sternly
militant stance; d) an alliance with right wing forces on account of
fear in the USSR of western encirclement.
4. For US Communists, the Popular Front of the 1930s: a) led to
isolation and repression; b) caused them to sever ties with liberals
and socialists in the name of “proletarian purity”; c) was
characterized by vituperation directed against Franklin D. Roosevelt,
a.k.a. “the social fascist”; d) brought welcomed opportunities for
collaboration with liberals, socialists, social democrats, and other
anti-fascists.
5. The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939: a) dealt the CPUSA a devastating
blow from which it never recovered; b) was merely a paper declaration
and had no real effect on Soviet foreign policy; c) was repudiated by
Earl Browder; d) triggered opposition by US Communists to the American
military build-up.
6. During the period of US involvement in World War II, the
Communist Party of the United States: a) declined rapidly, owing to its
opposition to the war; b) broke its ties with the Soviet Union; c)
transformed itself into a non-party “political association”; d)
fomented strikes so as to discredit capitalist modes of production.
7. Which of the following statements best captures the
recollected response of the interviewees in Seeing Red to Khrushchev’s
1956 denunciation of the crimes of Stalinism: a) they were appalled at
the mass victimization associated with Stalin’s regime and were
contrite over their support for it; b) they simply did not believe
Khrushchev, seeing him as a cynical interloper; c) they acknowledged
that both the CPUSA and they themselves had made mistakes, most notably
in being too authoritarian; d) they pretty much ignored it, seeing
reports of the speech as just another example of McCarthyite propaganda.
8. Which of the following statements best captures Stephen
Whitfield’s overall perspective on Communism and Communists in the US
in the postwar period: a) while McCarthyism was sometimes excessive,
Communists were dangerous, subversive traitors who required stern
repression; b) since accounts of the so-called “crimes” of Stalinism
were largely the product of hysterical anti-Communist propaganda, the
anti-Communist crusade, whether conducted by McCarthyites or liberals,
was illegitimate and unethical; c) Americans of good will such as
Lillian Hellman and Mickey Spillane were correct to be opposed to
Communism, though they sometimes went too far; d) the fixation on
anti-Communism stifled legitimate criticism of American society.
9. Which of the following statements about the relationship
between Communism and other left-and-liberal oriented groups and
movements in the US is the most accurate: a) the term “anti-Communist
liberal” is an oxymoron, since liberals have consistently shown
sympathy for the Communist agenda; b) Communists dominated the “New
Left” of the 1960s and early 1970s; c) liberals and democratic
socialists have been among the sharpest critics of Communist regimes;
d) New Leftists of the 1960s and early 1970s emulated the old CPUSA’s
flexible and democratic method of operation, although they repudiated
its Leninist ideology.
10. According to Leo Ribuffo, “revisionist” historians: a) were
wrong to make an analogy between Communists and Catholics with respect
to their mutual adherence to a “foreign” ideology; b) hailed liberals
such as Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., who combined admirable commitment
to civil liberties and principled opposition to Stalinism; c) are to be
repudiated for their denial of the Holocaust; d) celebrated the
activities of rank-and-file Communists.
Part II: Write an essay on the subject below. The essay counts 70
points.
You are trying to explain to a quizzical and perhaps skeptical person
the subject matter and activities of this course. Why, she might
ask, waste your time studying this sordid and unedifying chapter in US
history? What have we in the 21st century to learn from the
pathologies and failures of Communism? What do the John Reeds,
William Z. Fosters, Earl Browders, Dorothy Healeys, and Paul Robesons
have to say to us? In short, isn’t the Communist experience in
the US one best left to molder away, ignored and unlamented, while we
get on with the task of building dot.com America?
Some guidelines: Refamiliarize yourself with and
follow the take home exam instructions–including the need to consult an
outside source–as contained in the on-line syllabus. While this paper
is intended as a broadly reflective commentary, it is expected that you
will use both the required reading and your own outside reading in
responding. With that in mind, informal but clear references to
the various writers you regard as relevant to your essay is
appropriate.
When using material from the Fried collection, be
sure to name the specific author to whom you are referring or whom you
are quoting. Ditto, of course, with material drawn from or
reflecting Polenberg and Whitfield, a well as the library reserve
essays. You need not provide formal citations. So, for
example, you might write “As William Z. Foster argued in “Toward a
Soviet America” (Fried, 173) or “According to Len De Calx. . .” (Fried,
272). . . . With respect to Polenberg, Whitfield, and the course
reserve readings, you need only mention the page number in parenthesis,
as in “According to Whitfield, Hellman’s arguments were self-serving. .
. .” (105); or “As Keegan points out. . . .” (214-15) With
respect to outside reading specifically chosen to meet the take-home
exam requirement, cite it fully (i.e., author, full title, journal
title, date of publication) the first time you cite it and then use
brief parenthetical cites.
As to the content, I am interested in your ideas and
assessments. I’m still thinking about my own response to this
question and so I have no pre-determined “correct” answer in
mind. I am interested in what you think, as supported by
thoughtful use of the reading (and in some cases, viewing) you have
done during the semester. The best essays, in addition to being
well-written, will combine clear, thoughtful argumentation with
evidence of understanding of contrary perspectives, fairly
rendered. Good essays will avoid cheap shots, straw men, and
rhetorical tricks while at the same time conveying evidence of serious
and engaged political and ethical concerns.
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