We are now in the 50th year since the appearance of Strike!, one of the most influential books written in the New Left era, and one so sweeping in its depiction of direct action that it has become a textbook of sorts for every radical generation since.
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The rewriting of radical history has occupied two generations of US historians, in one way or another, and among some especially fine efforts in race-linked struggles, Red, Black and White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930–1950 by Mary Stanton is a gem.
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Paul Buhle’s review of Dean A. Strang, Keep the Wretches In Order: America’s Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department and the Fall of the IWW. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2019.
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Paul Buhle reviews The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History, by Jack Ross (2015)
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Stuart Hall with Bill Schwarz, Familiar Stranger: a Life Between Two Islands. Duke University Press, 2017. 271pp, $29.95 pbk
Stuart Hall, Selected Political Writings: The Great Moving Right Show and Other Essays. Duke University Press, 20917. 360pp, $27.95 pbk
1956: John Saville, E.P.
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We have had quite a year, in 2016, of Irish history, certainly the biggest for decades. The centenary of the 1916 uprising offered history buffs a veritable compulsion to write and speak on events, but more ordinary Irish men and women, at home and in the diaspora anywhere on the globe, to meet, pay more than the usual attention to lectures, also party, drink and perhaps above all, listen to music.
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This new book of political cartoons, In an Era of Wars and Revolutions: American Socialist Cartoons of the Mid-Twentieth Century, edited by Sean Matgamma, should be of interest to labor historians and those interested in mid-20th century Left politics. The title page of this unique volume of reprints indicates the art is “By Carlo and others.”
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These days, successful labor activity among the unorganized seems to depend, in ever greater degree, upon “faith based organizing,” union efforts interfacing with the constituencies of churches and the occasional synagogue. If this is a major trend, it surely begins with the story of Jobs with Justice.
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The Union Makes Us Strong by Peter K. Siegel and Eli Smith is a wonderful collection of old favorites, enlivened by some fancy banjo, fiddle and mandolin work and by the sweet harmony of the two singers. We may never hear more stirring versions of “Join the Union Tonight” by John Handcox, the forgotten organizer of sharecroppers or “Scissor Bill,” one of the less known Joe Hill tunes.
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