From Bryan to Stalin
From Bryan to Stalin is the first volume of political memoirs published by the American radical
Foster's 352-page memoir has come to be regarded as an important historical source for students of early 20th Century syndicalism and communism in the United States, and has been extensively employed in the writing of several biographies of the author.
Publication history
Background
On September 8, 1932, Foster collapsed from a severe
Accompanying his heart ailment came a
Foster remained ill, physically and mentally, until late in 1935, when a return to active political life was finally made.[3] It was during this long recuperation process in 1934 and 1935 that Foster began work on his autobiography, an effort that was ultimately published in two volumes as From Bryan to Stalin (1937) and Pages from a Worker's Life (1939).[4]
Release
From Bryan to Stalin was released in the spring of 1937 by International Publishers, a New York City-based publishing house closely tied to the Communist Party, USA. The book did not cross over to achieve mainstream publishing success, but was restricted instead to a relatively limited circulation among radical political activists.
Contents
Calling Foster "the most important figure in the American Communist Party,"
After joining the Communist movement, Foster's emphasis becomes one of detailing the "boring from within" process as practiced by the
Barbash lauds Foster's account of the history of American syndicalism in the years before World War I but charges him with proffering an "essentially unreliable" treatment of the labor movement in the post-war years.[5]
Critical reaction
Foster's memoir was seen by the Communist Party as a tool connecting the history of the early 20th Century American trade union movement to the history of the party itself. This relationship was emphasized by CPUSA leader
The conservative British magazine The Spectator was more sanguine in its appraisal, criticizing Foster's "account of the transformation of the too exotic, too doctrinaire party of zealots into the present officially truly American party that has Moscow's blessing is too brief to be more than a whet to the appetite" while noting that "a great deal of his book...will be unintelligible to the reader who has not the general outlines of recent American labour history clearly in his head.[7] While Foster "could have written an autobiography of great interest and real value," the unsigned reviewer asserted that instead Foster was "content to intermingle scraps of his own story with an account of the American labour movement beginning with the great upheavals of the 'nineties and passing through the heyday of the Industrial Workers of the World to the rise of orthodox communism," intimating that such a decision was less than satisfactory.[7]
Foster himself regarded From Bryan to Stalin and its successor volume, Pages from a Worker's Life, as an exercise in Communist Party history writing, both as a "contribution to the history of left wing trade unionism in the United States during the past forty years" and as a semi-official history of the origins of the party itself.[8] In the estimation of historian and Foster biographer James R. Barrett, the books remained as such until Foster's publication of a formal History of the Communist Party of the United States of America in 1952, which effectively superseded the earlier autobiographical effort.[9]
Chapter list
1. Beginnings
2. Bryan Movement
3. Socialist Party
4. Wage Workers Party
5. Industrial Workers of the World
6. Syndicalist League of North America
7. International Trade Union Educational League
8. AF of L: The Meat Packing Campaign
9.
10.
11. Communist International
12–13. Trade Union Educational League
14–15. Trade Union Unity League
16.
17. The Road Ahead
References
- ^ a b c Edward P. Johanningsmeier, Forging American Communism: The Life of William Z. Foster. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994; pg. 266.
- ^ a b Johanningsmeier, Forging American Communism, pp. 266-267.
- ^ a b c d Johanningsmeier, Forging American Communism, pg. 267.
- ^ Johanningsmeier, Forging American Communism, pg. 269.
- ^ a b c d e f John Barbash, "Autobiography of an Organizer: 'From Bryan to Stalin,' by William Z. Foster. International Publishers. $3.00," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 4, 1937, pg. 48.
- ^ Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, "Review and Comment: Bill Foster's Life Story," The New Masses," April 6, 1937, pg. 22.
- ^ a b "From Bryan to Stalin, by William Z. Foster," The Spectator, July 22, 1937, pg. 32.
- ^ William Z. Foster, Pages from a Worker's Life. New York: International Publishers, 1939; pg. 11. Quoted in James R. Barrett, William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999; pg. 202.
- ^ James R. Barrett, William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999; pg. 202.
External links
From Bryan to Stalin, book online in PDF format