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Communists' Autobiographies
| Article
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12660 |
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Section : |
Modern Thought
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1987 |
3,838 Words |
| Author
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Harvey Klehr
Harvey Klehr is Candler Dobbs professor of politics at Emory
University. His most recent book, Far Left of Center: The
American Radical Left today, was recently published by
Transaction Books. |
There appears to be no letup in the recent explosion of academic interest in American communism. Books, articles, and dissertations continue to appear, subjecting more and more obscure people and events in party history to detailed examination. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) may soon achieve the distinction of being the only American political movement having more bibliographic references than members.
In a recent series of attacks on many of the new historians of American communism, Theodore Draper, the acknowledged dean of such studies, has charged that they were frustrated New Leftists who have turned to the CPUSA's history to avoid confronting their own political pasts directly. The resulting controversy has been loud and acrimonious.
Many of the "new historians" have offered a favorable image of American communism, suggesting that, particularly during the "Popular Front" years of the 1930s and 1940s, it became a quasi-independent, democratic movement that mobilized the energy and spirit of decent Americans. Whatever its flaws, they argue, the CPUSA was a positive force in American life.
While scholars have been arguing about "the way we were," nearly everyone has ignored the present-day Communist Party. Despite their often positive assessments of the CPUSA's activities thirty or forty years ago, virtually all of the new historians of American communism evince little but scorn for the CPUSA today. Few pay attention to party activities or pronouncements.
While the Communist Party today is small--probably no more
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