 |
|||||||||||||
 |
|
 |
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 "Click for larger image")
James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928
Bryan D. Palmer
Cloth978-0-252-03109-0
$50.00
| Pub Date: | 2007 |
| Pages: | 576 pages |
| Dimensions: | 6.125 x 9.25 in. |
| Illustrations: | 27 Photographs |
The American revolutionary tradition reconsidered
Bryan D. Palmer's magisterial, award-winning study of James P. Cannon (1890-1974) concentrates on the emergence of the American revolutionary left in the 1910-1928 years. The book explores how a labor militant was made in the small-town, working-class milieu of Rosedale, Kansas. It then chronicles the rise of that radical in the ranks of United States revolutionaries, charting Cannon's movement from Kansas to centers of left-wing agitation, such as Chicago and New York.
James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928 is meticulously and creatively researched. Written with panache, its rich detail rests on a wide array of sources. Palmer's book situates American communism's formative decade in the dynamics of a specific political and economic context, never losing sight of the mobilizations and militant strikes of the period. This study also locates this historical drama--to an unprecedented degree--alongside the personal life and particular experience of a native son of working-class radicalism.
"One of the most inspiring leaders of the early United States Communist movement has at long last found a biographer worthy to recount the first four decades of his life."--Against the Current
"This book is a fitting tribute to Cannon - soapboxer, Wobbly, and American Bolshevik."--International Socialism
"Palmer's biography is destined to become a classic in the historiography of US Communism. It is the most serious treatment of the Communist movement's history in the 1920s since Draper's two volumes appeared approximately 50 years ago. . . . Palmer is currently preparing the second volume of his Cannon biography, chronicling the subject's Trotskyist years. I can hardly wait to read it."--Left History
"Palmer's faithful, moving account of the choices Cannon faced has important lessons for us. One of those lessons is that, even as we weigh the decisions the choices and hopes of previous radical generations, we need to attend to our own imperatives and dreams."--Canadian Dimension
"An important contribution to the study of American radicalism."--Journal of American History
"In this magnificent biography of Cannon, the founder of American Trotskyism, Bryan Palmer recovers the lost history of the Left in the 1920s and completely reframes the debate about the origins and nature of the CPUSA. Beyond Cold War calumny or Popular Front fairy- tale, here is the true story of 'Reds,' told by a master historian."--Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz, Planet of Slums, Buda's Wagon, and other books
"Destined to become a path-breaking classic on American Communism, Bryan Palmer's study of Jim Cannon offers a coherent and richly detailed account of that movement's formative decade. Communism in the United States of the 1920s emerges from this volume not as a mere hotbed of sterile sectarianism, but as a promising outgrowth of U.S. radical traditions boldly intersecting with the contradictory realities of Russian Communism." --Paul Le Blanc, author of A Short History of the U.S. Working Class and Marx, Lenin and the Revolutionary Experience
Bryan D. Palmer is the Canada Research Chair at Trent University and the editor of Labour/Le Travail. He is also the author of ten books, including Descent into Discourse and Cultures of Darkness.
Awards:
Awarded the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize by the Canadian Historical Association, 2008.
Series:
The Working Class in American History
Subjects:
Biography & Personal Papers / Radical Studies / Labor Studies / History, Am.: 20th C. / Marxism
