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Earl Browder; The Failure of American Communism By James G. Ryan Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997. 278+pp. $34.95
The long struggle between communism and democratic capitalism has passed into history, yet the passions and polarization aroused by that conflict can be re-experienced at a modulated level by examining recent scholarly works on American Communism. Harvey Klehr and others have conclusively demonstrated that the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) served as an appendage of the USSR's espionage efforts in the United States. Other researchers of a more leftist bent emphasize the CPUSA's rich roots in a distinctly American tradition of radical protest. Although James Ryan's general sympathies lie with the Left, his biography of Earl Browder seeks to stake out a patch of middle ground in the historiography of American communism.
Browder belongs on the short list of major American radicals. He lacked the dynamism of a "Big Bill" Haywood. He never came close to winning as many popular votes as Eugene Debs. He did not acquire grudging respect and even admiration among non-progressives as Norman Thomas to some extent managed to do. He certainly never acted in the spirit of mad frolic and fun that animated Sixties-era militants like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Yet in some ways Browder outranks them all in importance, for he led the Communist Party USA from 1932-1945, the years of its greatest influence.
Born in Kansas in 1891, he grew up in environs similar in many ways to Dwight Eisenhower's. The big difference was that both of Browder's parents (his father worked as a schoolteacher) had firm radical-left views. Young Browder and his siblings accepted their parents' postulates with the same unquestioning obedience that Earl later would give to Joseph Stalin.
Coming of age, Browder moved to Kansas City and held an assortment of jobs, although from the start the allure of politics exerted a powerful hold upon him. He spent all his free time working on behalf of whatever left-of-center cause-socialism, syndicalism, trade unionism, cooperativism-could be found in the early-twentieth century Midwest. He had a knack for political organization, enough to catch the momentary notice of the notorious Pendergast machine that then ran Democratic Party politics in that area. Browder received an invitation to join the...