Most Dangerous Communist in the United States
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1930s to 1990s leftist movements
20th-century African American history
A01=Gary Murrell
activist historiography
African American historiography
African American slave revolts documentation
Afro-American historical scholarship
Afro-American liberation studies
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
American Communist Party history
American Negro Slave Revolts
American political radicals
Author_Gary Murrell
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biog
black and white student activism
blacklisted scholars in academia
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BGH
Category=DNBH
Category=JPFC
civil rights era radicalism
communist activism and scholarship
communist intellectual history
contributions to African American studies
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Documentary History of the Negro People
editorial work on primary historical sources
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
family involvement in political work
Herbert Aptheker biography
historian and political agitator
historical activism and scholarship
historical editing of Du Bois writings
intellectual contributions to civil rights
intersection of politics and historiography
Language_English
leftist politics in America
life under FBI surveillance
Marxist intellectual tradition
Marxist scholarship in the United States
New Left student movements
Old Left intellectuals
PA=Available
political blacklisting in universities
political dissent and historical writing
political influence of the Old Left
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
racial justice and political activism
radical historians of African America
radical political activism in the U.S.
radicalism and family life
revolutionary political thought
social and political radicalism
socialist and communist movements in the U.S.
softlaunch
Soviet Union and American communism
W. E. B. Du Bois literary executor
Product details
- ISBN 9781625341549
- Weight: 656g
- Dimensions: 154 x 236mm
- Publication Date: 10 Aug 2015
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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When J. Edgar Hoover declared Herbert Aptheker “the most dangerous Communist in the United States,” the notorious FBI director misconstrued his true significance. In this first book-length biography of Aptheker (1915–2003), Gary Murrell provides a balanced yet unflinching assessment of the controversial figure who was at once a leading historian of African America, radical political activist, literary executor of W. E. B. Du Bois, and lifelong member of the American Communist Party. Although blacklisted at U.S. universities, Aptheker published dozens of books, including the groundbreaking American Negro Slave Revolts (1943) and the monumental seven-volume Documentary History of the Negro People (1951–1994).
He also edited four volumes of the correspondence and unpublished writings of Du Bois, an achievement that Eric Foner, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called “a milestone in the coming of age of Afro-American history.” As Murrell shows, Aptheker the historian was inseparable from Aptheker the leading Communist Party intellectual, polemicist, and agitator. During the 1960s, his ability to rouse and inspire both black and white student radicals made him one of the few Old Leftists accepted by the New Left.
Aptheker had joined the CPUSA during its heyday in the 1930s, convinced that only through the party’s leadership could fascism be defeated and true liberation be achieved: he ended his affiliation five decades later in 1991 after the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In an afterword, Bettina Aptheker adds to Murrell’s narrative by illuminating her mother Fay’s vital contributions to her father’s work and by affirming the particularly devastating challenges of life in a family dedicated to radical political and social change.
He also edited four volumes of the correspondence and unpublished writings of Du Bois, an achievement that Eric Foner, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called “a milestone in the coming of age of Afro-American history.” As Murrell shows, Aptheker the historian was inseparable from Aptheker the leading Communist Party intellectual, polemicist, and agitator. During the 1960s, his ability to rouse and inspire both black and white student radicals made him one of the few Old Leftists accepted by the New Left.
Aptheker had joined the CPUSA during its heyday in the 1930s, convinced that only through the party’s leadership could fascism be defeated and true liberation be achieved: he ended his affiliation five decades later in 1991 after the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In an afterword, Bettina Aptheker adds to Murrell’s narrative by illuminating her mother Fay’s vital contributions to her father’s work and by affirming the particularly devastating challenges of life in a family dedicated to radical political and social change.
Gary Murrell is professor of history at Grays Harbor College, USA.
