A solid academic analysis of the American communist movement
that draws on recently declassified Soviet documents. "Most
Americans have never liked communism. Indeed, most have despised
it,'' writes Haynes, a historian at the Library of Congress
(Dubious Alliances, etc.). Even in the heyday of American
communism, during the economic upheavals of the 1930s, most
Americans carried such an aversion to Marxist ideals that
communist labor organizers took pains to hide their affiliation.
In part, he suggests, this dislike owes to the fact that
communism has always seemed alien to Anglo-Americans: It came
from non-English-speaking Central European immigrants, surfacing
at a time when anti-immigrant feeling ran high, and it offered a
dogma that ran counter to American ideals of private property
and individualism. Still, Haynes writes, while anticommunist
feelings may have been firm, most Americans tolerated communists
so long as they kept a low profile and presented themselves as
"progressives.'' That laissez-faire a