THE WHOLE OF THEIR LIVES

The story, strictly from headquarters, of communism in America by a many-year member of the Communist Party who was also its leader in 1929. This is a history, from 1917 to the war, of this movement in America, from its birth in 1917 as Frania supplied the ideology, John Reed the heart and soul, while Larkin and Gitlow were prime organizers. The move underground in 1919 and the fight against the common enemy, capitalism, which was often overshadowed by the fights between themselves. The shift of attention from Russia to the United States, and the role played by the party in labor unionism, strikes. The affiliation with Moscow- as in 1929- Stalin took over the American Communist party and they went from defensive into offensive action; the bonus march; the CIO- a landmark in infiltration; etc. Communism in Moscow, the OGPU, and Stalin's system of ""dog watch dog""; techniques; training; liquidation- ending the book with the Carlos Tresca, Trotsky assassinations, the brush-off of Browder.. Certainly without the emotionalism, name-calling or more current news value of the Louis Budenz- This Is My Story (Whittlesey), this is more strictly a history which confines itself to facts, is an indictment largely on the basis of its information.