Reds The tragedy of American communism

Isserman (history, Hamilton Coll.; The Winter Army) presents a sweeping history of the American Communist Party, from its many fractious iterations in the years immediately following the 1917 Russian Revolution, to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. He expertly chronicles the many contradictions and ambiguities in the movement, while placing the party's history in its 20th-century American context. Throughout its history, the American Communist Party attracted a variety of seemingly contradictory people. Democratic, reform-minded individuals who wanted to end racism and inequality worked alongside authoritarians and ideologues who espoused Soviet propaganda. During the Popular Front era of the 1930s, a time relatively free of internal conflict and mainstream visibility, the group fought for unemployment relief, social security, and racial equality, while communist union organizers successfully spearheaded efforts to organize millions of workers. Some of the party's ideas became fruitful, but Isserman offers a convincing and nuanced history of the group's failures and bad intentions too. VERDICT This engaging history is based on a wide array of memoirs, FBI files, and other primary records that illuminate the American Communist Party's lengthy history. Readers of U.S. history, especially about movements deemed radical, will be interested in this title.--Chad E. Statler

This new history of the Communist Party USA reveals a quagmire of contradictions, paradoxes, and disputes. The CPUSA has often seemed like an extended exercise in self-delusion, with a few elements of genuine reform and criminal conspiracy thrown in. The party, writes Isserman, a professor of American history and author of The Winter Army and Continental Divide, was "an advocacy group entitled to normal constitutional guarantees of free speech, and at certain times and places it was also a criminal conspiracy." The author explains how many people were attracted by its rhetoric of impending victory heralding a brave new world, and he highlights the gap between the democratic language and the authoritarian reality. The Soviet Union was admired to the point of reverence by members of the Communist Party, which continued even after the waves of Stalinist purges and slaughters were revealed. There was a strong sense of a disconnection from reality, although Isserman points out that during the Depression, the CPUSA, operating through the union movement, won important gains for workers. He does not shy away from the conclusive evidence that there were communists who engaged in espionage for the Soviet Union and that the party was effectively subsidized by the Kremlin. After the 1960s, the party became increasingly marginal, lost in nostalgia and internal squabbles. This is an interesting story of rise and fall, although sometimes Isserman gets bogged down in details. Moreover, there are other areas that he could have explored further, including the impact of the split between the Soviet Union and China, or the real influence of socialist-type ideology on politicians such as Bernie Sanders. Perhaps the author saved some material for a subsequent book. If so, it will be a sequel worth reading. A comprehensive study of one of the key players in the development of America's political landscape. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.