Review of Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism by Maurice Isserman (Basic Books, 2024)
Few scholarly issues inspire passions as intense as the controversy over the place of the Communist Party (CPUSA) in United States history. A new level of rancor was touched off in 1985 by a pair of articles in the New York Review of Books by former “fellow traveler” Theodore Draper’s harsh criticism of the then-emerging wave of publications on the party. Historians polarized into opposing camps of “traditionalists” and “revisionists,” with the former portraying it as a sinister puppet of Soviet whims, and the latter emphasizing the CPUSA’s positive domestic contributions.
However, there are signs that this acrimony may be coming to a close. One such indication is the publication of Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism, by Maurice Isserman, a historian who was an initial target of Draper’s ire. The book has received praise from both sides of the historiographical divide, carrying endorsements from traditionalist Harvey Klehr and revisionist Ellen Schrecker, among others.
By incorporating the latest scholarship from a diversity of perspectives, Reds succeeds in providing the most up-to-date and authoritative single-volume history of the Communist Party available. Writing from a sympathetic yet critical viewpoint, Isserman has produced what is probably the closest one could come to a consensus history of the party.
The challenge that any history of the CPUSA faces is coming to terms with the party’s…
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Auteur: Daniel Colligan
