THE SOCIAL BASIS OF AMERICAN COMMUNISM

by Nathan Glazer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 9, 1961

This book covers another aspect of the Fund for the Republic's study on Communism in American Life the membership of the American Communist Party. The author describes those groups which were the chief targets of Communist recruiting efforts and the groups from which the Party got its greatest response. He deals with the Party's influence chronologically: the old Socialist elements from which the early members of the C.P. were drawn; the immigrant workers who made up the greater part of the Party during the twenties; the Party's efforts to recruit native born workers and to capture the trade unions; the middle class and professional groups that became prominent during the thirties and forties; and the efforts to recruit the Negroes -- which was most intense after World War II. He concentrates on the period from the middle thirties to the middle fifties, during the Party's greatest , when it was most influential among intellectuals and professionals and when it was heavily Jewish. Glazer spends some time analysing the Jewish membership of the and that the claims of the Party appealed to American Jews because of their general liberal and, in part, socialist orientation. Finally, he concludes that Communism its greatest inroads among those who allied themselves with the poor and oppressed, where it could most appeal to ideology, for example, among the Socialists; and where it could work through existing organizations, such as the trade unions. A thoughtful and valuable addition to the Fund's Series.

Pub Date: Aug. 9, 1961

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1961

Categories: NONFICTION