Betty Gannett was a committed member of the Communist Party for over 45 years, remaining active in spite of imprisonment and frequent persecution. Her papers are a remarkable testimony to a free-thinking and courageous woman.

As educational director of the California Communist Party, she lectured extensively not only on Marxism but on contemporary concerns such as the Truman Doctrine, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam. The microfilm edition of her papers reproduces many of these lectures which provide a Marxist perspective on post-war national and international events of interest both to philosophers and to political and economic historians.