Communist Propaganda in Pre-Cold War America

The Daily Worker and the Great Depression

AvHenry H. Prown

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

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Beskrivning

This book shows that press-orientated agitation and propaganda efforts, delivered through newspapers such as the The Daily Worker, played a key role in the political strategy of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) as they rose to unprecedented cultural prominence and political influence.On the eve of the Cold War, when The Daily Worker could be found on newsstands throughout the country and could boast sales of nearly 50,000, the party regarded the paper as the ‘central organ’ of their political movement. Arguing that this strategy closely aligned with the desires of their Soviet superiors in the Communist International (Comitern), who regularly intervened in the paper’s affairs, Prown shows how it maintained a stringently pro-Soviet line, and its editors became not dupes or naifs, but willing Stalinist collaborators. Delving into the editorial policies and practices of The Daily Worker in those trying times, Communist Propaganda in Pre-Cold War America provides insights into the forgotten world of American Bolshevism and the murky history of political propaganda.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2025-11-27
Mått:152 x 236 x 22 mm
Vikt:600 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series
Antal sidor:304
Förlag:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN:9781350575295

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Mer om författaren

Henry H. Prown is the 2022-25 Temerty Postdoctoral Fellow in Holodomor Studies and an instructor in the History, Classics, and Religion Department at University of Alberta, Canada. He is a specialist on the transnational history of Communism and the relationship between Stalinism and the American media in the mid-20th Century.

Recensioner i media

A sobering account of how a generation of left-wing Americans were deceived. Throughout the great depression of the 1930s the Daily Worker -- official newspaper of the Communist Party of the USA – worked to stir up public opinion in the United States. It drew both funds and editorial direction from the Soviet Union. In this first scholarly history of its output, Henry Prown shows how the paper exaggerated hardship in 1930s America while denying famine in Ukraine; supported show trials in Moscow; concealed mistreatment of American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War and towed Stalin’s line following his shocking pact with Hitler in 1939. This is a valuable volume for anyone interested in the history of propaganda and timely reading at a time when issues of disinformation are once again at the heart of American political life.

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction: The Daily Worker, the CPUSA and the CominternSection I: Famine1. The Great Depression2. Unemployed Councils3. Hunger Marches4. The EPIC Campaign5. HolodomorSection II: Trial 6. Traitors and Spies7. Scottsboro8. Gastonia9. Prelude to Terror10. The Great Purge Section III: War11. Fascist Anti-Fascists 12. Social Fascism 13. The Daily Worker at Work14. Civil War in Spain15. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Conclusion: The Daily Worker’s LegacyBibliography