Volume 2, Number 9 · June 11, 1964
The Red and the Black
By Lewis A. Coser
Race and Radicalism: The NAACP and the Communist Party in Conflict
by Wilson Record
Cornell, 237 pp., $5.95
The American Communist Party has always been one of the weakest and least important links in the international Communist movement, yet, ith the exception of the Russian branch, it has been studied more exhaustively than the Party of any other country. This paradox may in part be traced to the continued wish of many former Stalinists or fellow-travelers to re-examine their past and to discover what went wrong. But there are other reasons. American Communism, though it never amounted to a major force in American politics, was yet responsible for the destruction, waste, and misdirection of a great deal of political idealism and moral passion in this country. The Communist betrayal is largely to be blamed for the contemporary eclipse—except in the Negro movement—of the very idea of radicalism, of the notion that men might be able, by a radical effort of the collective will, to make the world over in the image of their desires. The fact that once unambiguous notions like socialism, community, or equality have become deeply problematical in our times can be traced in no small measure to the impact of the cynical misuse and exploitation of these terms by the Communist movement. Hence the continued concern of historians, political scientists, and sociologists with American Communism.
Review, 1158 words
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