Bibliography on American Communism


 * For the main article to which this is linked see Communist Party USA.
 * For an annotated list of publications published by the Communist Party USA, see List of Communist publications.

The following is a bibliography on American Communism, listing some of the most important works on the topic.

General articles

 * Bittelman, Alexander. (126 KiB). Published as “Hynes Exhibit No. 4” in Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1930), pp. 435–448. Published on line by http://www.marxisthistory.org. Retrieved June 11, 2006.
 * Nash, Michael. (4.22 MiB). American Communist History, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2004. Retrieved April 3, 2006.

General histories

 * Buhle, Paul, Marxism in the USA: Remapping the History of the American Left. London: Verso, 1987.
 * Cannon, James P., The First Ten Years of American Communism: Report of a Participant. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1962.
 * Dobbs, Farrell, Marxist Leadership in the U.S.: Revolutionary Continuity: Birth of the Communist Movement, 1918-1922. New York: Monad Press, 1983.
 * Draper, Theodore, The Roots of American Communism. New York: Viking, 1957.
 * Draper, Theodore, American Communism and Soviet Russia: The Formative Period. New York: Viking, 1960.
 * Foster, William Z., History of the Communist Party of the United States. New York: International Publishers, 1952.
 * Howe, Irving and Lewis Coser, The American Communist Party: A Critical History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1957.
 * Isserman, Maurice, Which Side Were You On?: The American Communist Party During the Second World War. Wesleyan University Press, 1982 and 1987.
 * Jaffe, Philip J., Rise and Fall of American Communism. Horizon Press, 1975.
 * Klehr, Harvey. The Heyday of American Communism:The Depression Decade, Basic Books, 1984.
 * Klehr, Harvey and Haynes, John Earl, The American Communist Movement: Storming Heaven Itself, Twayne Publishers (Macmillan), 1992.
 * Klehr, Harvey, John Earl Haynes, and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov. The Secret World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
 * Klehr, Harvey, Kyrill M. Anderson, and John Earl Haynes. The Soviet World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
 * Lewy, Guenter, The Cause That Failed: Communism in American Political Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
 * Oneal, James, American Communism: A Critical Analysis of Its Origins, Development, and Programs. New York: Rand Book Store, 1927. Revised ed. 1948.
 * Ottanelli, Fraser M., The Communist Party of the United States: From the Depression to World War II. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991.
 * Palmer, Bryan, James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928. Urbana, IL: Illinois University Press, 2007.
 * Richmond, Al, A Long View from the Left: Memoirs of an American Revolutionary. 447 pages, Houghton Mifflin, 1973.
 * Shannon, David A., The Decline of American Communism: A History of the Communist Party of the United States since 1945. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1959.
 * Starobin, Joseph R., American Communism in Crisis, 1943-1957. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.
 * Stevenson, Archibald (ed.), Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics...Being the Report of the Joint Legislative Committee Investigating Seditious Activities, Filed April 24, 1920, in the Senate of the State of New York: Part 1: Revolutionary and Subversive Movements Abroad and at Home. In Two Volumes. (AKA the "Lusk Report.") Albany, NY: J.B. Lyon, 1920.
 * Jacob A. Zumoff, "The Communist International and US Communism, 1919-1929." Leiden: Brill, 2014.

Regional and local histories

 * Holmes, T. Michael, The Specter of Communism in Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.
 * Kelley, Robin D. G., Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press, 1990.
 * Lyons, Paul, Philadelphia Communists, 1936-1956. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982
 * Pedersen, Vernon L., The Communist Party in Maryland. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001.
 * Storch, Randi, Red Chicago: American Communism at Its Grassroots, 1928-35. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2007.

Social composition of the Communist movement

 * Glazer, Nathan, The Social Basis of American Communism. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961.
 * Klehr, Harvey E., Communist Cadre: The Social Background of the American Communist Party, Hoover Institution Press, 1960, ISBN 0-685-67279-4
 * Kraditor, Aileen S., Jimmy Higgins: The Mental World of the American Rank-And-File Communist, 1930-1958. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1988. ISBN 0-313-26246-2

Participant memoirs

 * Bailey, Bill, The Kid From Hoboken: An Autobiography. San Francisco: Circus Lithograph Press, 1993.
 * Chambers, Whittaker, Witness. New York: Random House, 1952.
 * Eastman, Max, Love and Revolution: My Journey Through an Epoch. New York: Random House, 1964.
 * Foster, William Z., From Bryan to Stalin. New York: International Publishers, 1937.
 * Foster, William Z., Pages from a Worker's Life. New York: International Publishers, 1939.
 * Freeman, Joseph, An American Testament: A Narrative of Rebels and Romantics. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1936.
 * Gates, John, The Story of An American Communist. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1958.
 * Gitlow, Benjamin, I Confess: The Truth About American Communism. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1940.
 * Gitlow, Benjamin, Witness. New York: Random House, 1952.
 * Gornick, Vivian, The Romance of American Communism., New York: Basic Books, 1977.
 * Healey, Dorothy and Isserman, Maurice, Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
 * Mitford, Jessica, A Fine Old Conflict. New York: Vintage Books USA, 1977.
 * Nelson, Steve, Barrett, James R., and Ruck, Rob, Steve Nelson: American Radical. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1981.
 * Scriber, Tom, Lumberjack. Santa Cruz, CA: Redwood Ripsaw, 1966.
 * Shipman, Charles,  It Had to Be Revolution: Memoirs of an American Radical. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
 * Richmond, Al, A Long View from the Left: Memoirs of an American Revolutionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973.
 * Schrank, Robert, Wasn't That a Time? Growing Up Radical and Red in America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998.
 * Williamson, John, Dangerous Scot: The Life and Work of an American "Undesirable." New York: International Publishers, 1969.
 * Wolfe, Bertram D., A Life in Two Centuries: An Autobiography. New York: Stein and Day, 1981.
 * Wolfe, Bertram D., Strange Communists I Have Known. New York: Stein and Day, 1965.

Biographies of leading participants

 * Barrett, James R., William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999.
 * Buhle, Paul M., A Dreamer's Paradise Lost: Louis C. Fraina/Lewis Corey (1892–1953) and the Decline of Radicalism in the United States. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1995.
 * Camp, Helen C., Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 1995.
 * Johanningsmeier, Edward P., Forging American Communism: The Life of William Z. Foster. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.
 * Johnson, Oakley C., The Day is Coming: Life and Work of Charles E. Ruthenberg. New York: International Publishers, 1957.
 * Morgan, Ted, A Covert Life: Jay Lovestone: Communist, Anti-Communist, and Spymaster. New York: Random House, 1999.
 * O'Neill, William L., The Last Romantic: A Life of Max Eastman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
 * Hicks, Granville with Stuart, John, John Reed: The Making of a Revolutionary. New York: Macmillan, 1936.
 * Shields, Art, On the Battle Lines, 1919-1939. New York: International Publishers, 1986.
 * Strong, Tracy B. and Keyssar, Helene, Right in Her Soul: The Life of Anna Louise Strong. New York: Random House, 1983.
 * Young, Art, Art Young—His Life and Times. New York: Sheridan House, 1939.
 * Zipser, Arthur and Zipser, Pearl, Fire and Grace: The Life of Rose Pastor Stokes. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1989.
 * Zipser, Arthur and Zipser, Pearl, Fire and Grace: The Life of Rose Pastor Stokes. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1989.

The Communist Party and the trade unions
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001. ISBN 1-56639-922-X
 * Bimba, Anthony, History of the American Working Class. New York: International Publishers, 1927.
 * Cochran, Bert, Labor and Communism: The Conflict That Shaped American Unions, Princeton University Press, 1977, ISBN 0-691-04644-1
 * Foner, Philip S., History of the Labor Movement in the United States. (In 10 Volumes) New York: International Publishers, 1948-1994.
 * Freeman, Joshua B. In Transit: The Transport Workers Union in New York City, 1933-1966.
 * Gibson, Rich, "The Torment and Demise of the United Auto Workers' Union." https://web.archive.org/web/20121029191136/http://clogic.eserver.org/2006/gibson.html
 * Kampelman, Max M., Communist Party vs the CIO: A Study in Power Politics. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1957.
 * Keeran, Roger, Communist Party and the Auto Workers Unions. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-253-15754-4
 * Levenstein, Harvey, Communism, Anticommunism, and the CIO. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. ISBN 0-313-22072-7
 * Salmond, John A., Gastonia 1929: The Story of the Loray Mill Strike. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8078-2237-X
 * Saposs, David J., Left Wing Unionism: A Study of Radical Policies and Tactics. New York: International Publishers, 1926.
 * Schatz, Ronald W. Electrical Workers: A History of Labor at General Electric and Westinghouse, 1923-60. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN 0-252-01031-0
 * Schneider, David M., The Workers' (Communist) Party and American Trade Unions. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1928.

The Communist Party and agriculture

 * Daniel, Cletus E. Bitter Harvest: A History of California Farmworkers, 1870-1941. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981; paper: Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982.
 * Dyson, Lowell K., Red Harvest: The Communist Party and American Farmers, University of Nebraska Press, 1982. ISBN 0-8032-1659-9
 * Kelley, Robin D.G. Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8078-4288-5

The Communist Party and youth

 * Cohen, Robert, When the Old Left Was Young: Student Radicals and America's First Mass Student Movement, 1929-1941. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
 * Mishler, Paul C., Raising Reds: The Young Pioneers, Radical Summer Camps, and Communist Political Culture in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

The Communist Party and women

 * Slutsky, Beth. Gendering Radicalism: Women and Communism in Twentieth-Century California. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2015.
 * Weigand, Kate. Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

The Communist Party and intellectuals

 * Aaron, Daniel, Writers on the Left: Episodes in American Literary Communism. New York: Harcourt Brace & World, 1959.
 * Horne, Gerald, Class Struggle in Hollywood, 1930-1950. Austin: University of Texas, 0292731388
 * Schwartz, Lawrence H. Marxism and Culture: The CPUSA and Aesthetics in the 1930s, Authors Choice Press, 2000. ISBN 0-595-12751-7
 * Wald, Alan Exiles from a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth Century Literary Left. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8078-5349-6

The Communist Party and Black Americans

 * Carter, Dan T. Scottsboro a Tragedy of the American South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972; paper: Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.
 * DuBois, W.E.B., The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois. New York: International Publishers. ISBN 0-7178-0234-5
 * Foner, Philip S., Organized Labor and the Black Worker. New York: International Publishers. ISBN 0-7178-0594-8
 * Foner, Philip S. and Allen, James S. (eds.), American Communism and Black Americans: A Documentary History, 1919-1929. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987.
 * Foner, Philip S. and Shapiro, Herbert (eds.), American Communism and Black Americans: A Documentary History, 1930-1934. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-87722-761-6
 * Haywood, Harry, Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist. Chicago: Liberator Press, 1978. ISBN 0-930720-53-9
 * Martin, Charles H. The Angelo Herndon Case and Southern Justice. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1976. ISBN 0-8071-0174-5
 * Naison, Mark, Communists in Harlem During the Depression. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN 0-252-00644-5
 * Painter, Nell Irvin. The Narrative of Hosea Hudson: His Life as a Negro Communist in the South.  Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979.  ISBN 0-674-60110-6
 * Pintzuk, Edward C. Reds, Racial Justice, and Civil Liberties: Michigan Communists During the Cold War. MEP Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-930656-71-7
 * Record, Wilson, The Negro and the Communist Party. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1951.
 * Solomon, Mark, The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917-1936. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press, 1998. ISBN 1-57806-095-8
 * Yates, James, Mississippi to Madrid: Memoir of a Black American in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Open Hand Publishing, 1989. ISBN 0-940880-20-2
 * Zumoff, Jacob A. The Communist International and US Communism, 1919-1929. Leiden: Brill, 2014. Especially chapters 14-17.

The Communist Party and ethnic radicalism

 * Bengston, Henry, On the Left in America: Memoirs of the Scandinavian-American Labor Movement. [1955] Kermit B. Westerbrook, trans. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.
 * Buhle, Paul, and Georgakas, Dan (eds.), The Immigrant Left in the United States. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.
 * Epstein, Melech, The Jew and Communism, 1919-1941. New York: Trade Union Sponsoring Committee, n.d. [1959].
 * Karni, Michael G. and Ollila Jr., Douglas J., For the Common Good: Finnish Immigrants and hithe United States: The Case of Finns and the Left. Rutherford, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984.
 * Kostiainen, Auvo, The Forging of Finnish-American Communism, 1917-1924: A Study in Ethnic Radicalism. Turku, Finland: University of Turku, Turku, Finland, 1978.
 * Rosenblum, Gerald, Immigrant Workers: Their Impact on American Labor Radicalism. New York: Basic Books, 1973.
 * Sherman, John W., A Communist Front at Mid-Century: The American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, 1933-1959. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001.
 * Szajkowski, Zosa, Jews, Wars and Communism: Vol. 1: The Attitude of American Jews to World War I, the Russian Revolutions of 1917, and Communism (1914–1945). New York: Ktav, 1972.

Miscellaneous monographs related to the CPUSA

 * Morray, J.P., Project Kuzbas: American Workers in Siberia (1921–1926). New York: International Publishers, 1983.
 * Mullen, Bill V., Popular Fronts. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999. ISBN 0-252-06748-7
 * Rosenstone, Robert, Crusade on the Left: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War. Pegasus, 1969.
 * Saxton, Alexander, The Great Midland. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

Intra-party opposition movements

 * Alexander, Robert J., The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. ISBN 0-313-22070-0
 * Cannon, James P., The History of American Trotskyism: Report of a Participant. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1944.
 * Myers, Constance Ashton, The Prophet's Army: Trotskyists in America, 1928-1941. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977. ISBN 0-8371-9030-4

Organized anti-communism and McCarthyism

 * Ceplair, Larry and Englund, Steven, Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930-1960. New York: Doubleday, 1980. paper: Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
 * Fried, Richard M., Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
 * Hoover, J. Edgar, Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1958.
 * Jaffe, Julian F., Crusade Against Radicalism: New York During the Red Scare, 1914-1924. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1972.
 * Kornweibel Jr., Theodore, "Seeing Red": Federal Campaigns Against Black Militancy, 1919-1925. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-253-33337-7
 * McCormick, Charles H., Seeing Reds: Federal Surveillance of Radicals in the Pittsburgh Mill District, 1917-1921. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995.
 * Murray, Robert K., Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955.
 * Oshinsky, David M. A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.
 * Preston Jr., William, Aliens and Dissenters: Federal Suppression of Radicals, 1903-1933. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
 * Reeves, Thomas C., Life and Times of Joe McCarthy. New York: Stein & Day, 1983. ISBN 0-8128-2337-0

Espionage, infiltration, and Soviet funding

 * Andrew, Christopher and Mitrokhin, Vasili, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, New York: Basic Books, 1999. ISBN 0-465-00310-9.
 * John Barron, Operation Solo: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin. Chicago: Regnery Publishing, 1996; 2nd ed.: 2001, ISBN 0-7091-6061-5.
 * Haynes, John Earl, and Klehr, Harvey, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.
 * Meeropol, Robert, An Execution in the Family. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003.
 * Latham, Earl, Communist Controversy in Washington: From the New Deal to McCarthy, Holiday House, 1972.
 * Radosh, Ronald and Joyce Milton, The Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth. New York: Henry Holt, 1983. 2nd edition: New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1997.
 * Schecter, Jerrold and Leona, Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History, Potomac Books, 2002.
 * Sudoplatov, Pavel Anatoli, Schecter, Jerrold L., and Schecter, Leona P., Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness—A Soviet Spymaster. Boston: Little Brown, 1994.
 * Weinstein, Allen, Perjury: The Hiss–Chambers Case. New York: Knopf, 1978.
 * Weinstein, Allen, and Vassiliev, Alexander, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America - the Stalin Era. New York: Random House, 1999.
 * Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy Report, Appendix A, 4. The Encounter with Communism (1997)
 * Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive. American Revolution into the New Millennium: A Counterintelligence Reader: . Volume 3, Chapter 1. U.S. Government on line publication. No date. Retrieved May 25, 2005.

Historiography

 * Isserman, Maurice, "The New History of American Communism Revisited." Reviews in American History, 20. 1992. 536 - 542. Johns Hopkins University Press.