Cheap Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left (Book) (Ronald Radosh) Price

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Customer Reviews of Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left

In some ways, Radosh's "Commies" can be seen as a sequel to Whittaker Chambers' outstanding autobiography "Witness". Commies takes us from the period of the 1940s & 50s to the present, showing the profound influence and acceptance Communism enjoyed (and still enjoys) amongst the "mainstream" left in the United States. While it is true (as another reviewer mentioned) that little of what the book describes is truly new, the fact remains that the word has yet to get out to the majority of the public; Radosh's telling of his personal story may help this.

The most intriguing thing about this book is that Radosh doesn't tell us where he ended up with respect to personal ideology. We know that he is no longer a Communist or Communist sympathizer, but we don't know what his beliefs are today. I left the book with the impression that he was still searching out what his rejection of Communism really meant. However, this sense of not having joined a new "camp" is probably what makes Radosh the perfect person to tell this story.

More Negative Name-Dropping than Useful History of Communism
Radosh's newest book is a combination of tell-all celebrity-style memoir and attempted semi-history of the old and new lefts. Unfortunately, the result is a discomfiting excoriation of Radosh's past political assumptions and allies seemingly based upon a desire for score-settling and even outright vengeance for his own blackballing after publication of his masterful _The Rosenberg File_. In some ways the tone of Radosh's book echoes 1950s exposes of the CPUSA written by former party members such as Louis Budenz and Whittaker Chambers (although it is not nearly so well-written as Chambers' _Witness_), with the central argument being that American Communists and fellow travellers place(d) loyalty to the party and the USSR ahead of loyalty to country and to friends who dare(d) to question Communist directives. In this respect, Radosh travels well-trod ground, and adds little to the genre.

It seems his intended audience is those most militantly ideological believers -- the left and their right-wing anti-Communist foes -- whose ranks have the most to lose or gain by Radosh's conversion. For the rest of us, however, there is little of historical value. Is it new news that the Rosenbergs, Woody Guthrie, and the members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, for example, were Communist sympathizers whose primary emotional and political attachments were to Soviet Russia, and whose beliefs contributed to the advancement of an anti-democratic Communist party? Perhaps to some, but certainly not to historians of American Communism.

Furthermore, Radosh often fails to distinguish between leftists, liberals, and feminists in his sometimes petty criticisms (such as naming radical and academic women he had brief affairs with in his allegedly misspent radical youth, as if their sexual adventurism was somehow part of a vast leftist conspiracy to undermine American [or at least Radosh's -- it is not quite clear] morality.

Radosh's book will satisfy conservatives who wish to feel bolstered in their anti-Communist convictions, and some former leftists who share Radosh's experiences and beliefs. It will outrage others who cling to the beliefs Radosh rejects and adhere to the loyalties he scorns. For readers hoping to find new insights on the history or personalities of the left, however, Commies has little to offer--save, perhaps, some almost salacious and perhaps defamatory descriptions of leftist and liberal individuals that will amuse and gratify some and outrage or embarrass others. In any case, they seem rather out of place in a scholarly text.

In short, Radosh attempted to write history and memoir combined, but did not succeed terribly well. His book will satisfy readers who already hold his beliefs, and anger some of those who do not. Most of us, however, given Radosh's previously proven talents and the contrasting weaknesses of his newest book, will walk away disappointed, bemused, and perhaps even bored.

"Anticommunism was the moral equivalency of rape"
To quote Hayden's "Students for a Democratic Society". This is an excellent book about the Left's blindspot--either willfull or self-deluded--towards the atrocities of the Soviet Union and Communist movements in general. Radosh begins in the late 30s early 40s--when Leftist attacked FDR as a war-mongerer during the Nazi-Soviet pact--and ends w/ Bianca Jagger strutting around nude during the anti-Sandinista Nicuaraguan elections in the late 80s. The stories and anecdotes Radosh brings out are entertaining and in ways, frightening, because of the depth of the willful ignorance of Communist atrocities within the Leftist collective consciousness. Michael Lerner, Bob Scheer, Ed Asner...these people still walk around w/ a hefty amount of credibility to the crowds they play to. That's disturbing. Radosh also returns to the Rosenberg case, and shows how the Venona taps confirm the guilt of the Rosenbergs. He also tells of the Leftist reactions to this, either denial (like many reviewers below, many of which don't even address the consequences of the Venona "secrets") or worse, "The facts are irrelevant, we need the Rosenbergs as heroes".

I'm only giving it four stars, because I think that David Horowitz' Radical Son is a better overall biography (more personal and honest), and Horowitz explains the personal appeal of and rationale behind Leftism. Radosh's book is more of a summary of Leftist vomit, like the above quote from the SDS, but it's still an excellent book about one side of the political spectrum during the Cold War.