Radicals in America

Abstract

Radicals in America is a masterful history of controversial dissenters who pursued greater equality, freedom and democracy - and transformed the nation. Written with clarity and verve, Radicals in America shows how radical leftists, while often marginal or ostracized, could assume a catalytic role as effective organizers in mass movements, fostering the imagination of alternative futures. Beginning with the Second World War, Radicals in America extends all the way down to the present, making it the first comprehensive history of radicalism to reach beyond the sixties. From the Communist Party and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, its coverage extends to the Battle of Seattle and Occupy Wall Street. Each chapter begins with a particular life story, including a Harlem woman deported in the McCarthy era, a gay Japanese-American opponent of the Vietnam War, and a Native American environmentalist, vignettes that bring to life the personal within the political.

Who Are Black Lives Matter Activists? Niche Realization in a Multimovement Environment

“…Activists may have good reasons to restrain themselves from endorsing violence, as there is extensive research indicating that political violence is more likely to backfire (by decreasing public support for the cause or its chances for success) than it is to advance a cause (Chenoweth and Stephan 2011;Feinberg, Willer, and Kovacheff 2020;Wasow 2020). Further, the hypothesis is not meant to suggest that BLM activists are the only activists to justify violence, as there is a record of activists using violence for many causes, such as the antiabortion movement (Nice 1988), the environmental movement (Beck 2007), and the anti-Vietnam-War movement (Brick and Phelps 2015). Finally, it is necessary to clarify that this hypothesis is about activists being willing to see political violence as potentially justified; it is not about whether they have acted or plan to act violently.…”

“We Charge Genocide”: Revisiting black radicals’ appeals to the world community1

“…The Communist Party (CP) and its Stalinism had alienated members and more liberal fellow travelers with the Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact in 1939. 63 Once the 'sparkplugs of insurgency', the postwar period put Communists 'on the defensive'. 64 Communists' belief that their struggle was for a truer American democracy and a more equitable world order was contradicted by the CP's fidelity to the Soviet Union and its blindness to Stalin's crimes.…”

“…63 Once the 'sparkplugs of insurgency', the postwar period put Communists 'on the defensive'. 64 Communists' belief that their struggle was for a truer American democracy and a more equitable world order was contradicted by the CP's fidelity to the Soviet Union and its blindness to Stalin's crimes. As Howard Brick and Christopher Phelps write, lionizing the Soviet formation foreclosed 'more democratic concepts of socialism from gaining traction'.…”

“…As Howard Brick and Christopher Phelps write, lionizing the Soviet formation foreclosed 'more democratic concepts of socialism from gaining traction'. 65 The CP's record on race and civil rights was not without its contradictions, either, as the party opposed Randolph and his March on Washington, backed the internment of Japanese-Americans during wartime and assented to the nuclear annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the name of antifascism. 66 At the same time, understanding the CRC within a transnational history of black internationalism means recontextualizing these familiar nation-bounded critiques of the CP and Stalinism.…”