Forgotten Radicals: Communists in the Pennsylvania Anthracite, 1919-1950University Press of America, 2005 - 268 pages This detailed investigation of Communists and their Party in the hard coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania, known as the Anthracite, draws on sources such as the central archives of the Communist Party of the United States to examine the origins, growth, and decline of the relatively small but active Marxist-Leninist organization that operated there during the first half of the 20th century. Anthracite. Just mentioning the name of the hard coal region of Pennsylvania conjures up classic images of labor violence and class conflict: Molly Maguires, Lattimer and the 1902 national coal strike. Yet this legendary tradition of labor and class discord has prompted no historian to chronicle the complete story of the region's largest and most active radical group in the 20th century: American Communists. They are forgotten radicals. Chronicling the story of these forgotten radicals allows us to examine American Communism in an important area of the highly industrialized state of Pennsylvania where a major capitalist enterprise, the hard coal industry, employed a large contingent of immigrant workers for about half of the 20th century. To be sure, studying these radicals permits us to explore the overall historical pattern of American Communism_the founding of the Party in 1919, the challenges of the 1920s, the heyday of the thirties, the turns of World War II, and the decline during the McCarthy period_in a regional context. Thus, Forgotten Radicals fills a niche in local studies of rank and file Communist activity. |
Contents
List of Tables | 4 |
Communists and Miners 19221926 | 17 |
Eve of the Third Period | 35 |
Copyright | |
11 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Forgotten Radicals: Communists in the Pennsylvania Anthracite, 1919-1950 Walter T. Howard Limited preview - 2005 |
Forgotten Radicals: Communists in the Pennsylvania Anthracite, 1919-1950 Walter T. Howard No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
activities American Communist American Radical American Slav Congress anthra anthracite Communists anthracite miners Anticommunism anticommunist April arrested August Cappellini coal miners coal operators Comintern Committee Communism Communist miners Communist Party CPUSA Papers Daily Worker declared delegates delo District dual unionism Earl Browder editors election Fascism February federal fond Foster Frankfeld hard coal Hunger March Ibid industry International Workers Order January Joe Dougher John July June labor movement Lackawanna County leaders leadership League Lewis Luzerne County Maloney meeting militant northeastern Pennsylvania NTWU October officers opis organization Party members Party's Pennsylvania anthracite Pittston police Popular Front Powers Hapgood President rank and file regional Communists relief reported Russian Save the Union Scranton September Socialist Soviet Union Steve Nelson strike Textile Workers thracite Toohey TUEL Unemployed Council unemployment united front United Mine Workers Vrataric wage walkout Wilkes-Barre Record Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader Workers Alliance York