Rutgers University Press
Menace of Our Time
About this book
A survey of the far-reaching measures the U.S. government brought to bear against the CPUSA, from poison-pen letters to the Red Scare and beyond.
Beginning at the turn of the twentieth century and ending only with the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, the U.S. government and major elements in the wider society waged an unrelenting campaign to suppress and criminalize domestic communism. This long-overdue book details the longest and most extensive repressive operation ever undertaken by U.S. authorities against a domestic political organization that, however problematic, was largely operating within the scope of constitutionally mandated freedoms. Beyond that, this is the story of how systemic measures against U.S. communists—in contrast to the vaunted claims of American political freedom—defined the political landscape of the last century.
Menace of Our Time tracks the suppression efforts aimed at the group, including the state laws of the twenties that imprisoned the fledgling communist leadership; the tactics used by police and local authorities against communists as they fought for unions, racial equality, and the unemployed; the trials and imprisonment of communist leaders mid-century; the extra-legal efforts of the Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) in the sixties; and the ongoing, relentless surveillance by the FBI that followed. In examining the far-reaching measures the government brought to bear against the Communist Party USA, Aaron J. Leonard provides a clearer picture of the mechanics of social and political repression that abound in the society we still inhabit.
Author / Editor information
Reviews
"The book is so comprehensive. It's great to see all this material in one place. . . . It's excellent."
— TrueAnon"Leonard [is] the best living historian on the topic of political repression of the US Left in the United States. . . . In today's USA, Leonard's chronicles of political repression become even more important than before. . . . The history told in Menace of Our Time leads to a far different truth about freedoms and their fragility. Indeed, this book could not have come at a better time."
— CounterpunchTopics
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Frontmatter
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Contents
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Preface
ix -
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Abbreviations
xiii -
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Note on the Text
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Introduction
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1 Opening Salvos (1901–1920)
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2 Underground and Above (1921–1927)
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3 The Third Period (1928–1933)
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4 Marginalized in the Mainstream (1934–1939)
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5 To War (1939–1945)
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6 Clampdown (1946–1947)
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6 Clampdown (1946–1947)
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8 Prison and Pursuit (1950–1953)
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9 Disruption (1954–1963)
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10 Hounded (1964–1970)
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11 Final Conflicts (1971–1991)
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Conclusion
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Appendix 1 CPUSA Leaders Imprisoned
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Appendix 2 FBI Files Referenced
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Chronology
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Acknowledgments
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Notes
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Selected Bibliography
209 -
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Index
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About the Author
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