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Overview
Since the birth of fascism in the 1920s, well before the global renaissance of “white nationalism,” the United States has been home to its own distinct fascist movements, some of which decisively influenced the course of US history. Yet long before “antifa” became a household word in the United States, they were met, time and again, by an equally deep antifascist current. Many on the left are unaware that the United States has a rich antifascist tradition, because it has rarely been discussed as such, nor has it been accessible in one place. This reader reconstructs the history of US antifascism into the twenty-first century, showing how generations of writers, organizers, and fighters spoke to each other over time.
Spanning the 1930s to the present, this chronologically-arranged, primary source reader is made up of antifascist writings by Americans and by exiles in the US, some instantly recognizable, others long-forgotten. It also includes a sampling of influential writings from the US fascist, white nationalist, and proto-fascist traditions. Its contents, mostly written by people embedded in antifascist movements, include a number of pieces produced abroad that deeply influenced the US left. The collection thus places US antifascism in a global context.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781788733526 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Verso Books |
| Publication date: | 01/07/2020 |
| Sold by: | Penguin Random House Publisher Services |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 384 |
| Sales rank: | 1,048,818 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Chris Vials is an Associate Professor of English and Director of American Studies at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. He is the author of Haunted by Hitler: Liberals, the Left, and the Fight against Fascism in the United States (2014) as well as numerous pieces on fascism and antifascism in the United States. He has appeared on CBC radio, PBS, and NPR to discuss the history of American fascist and antifascist movements. He is also co-founder of the Neighbor Fund, a non-profit devoted to legal defense for undocumented immigrants in Connecticut.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Anti/Fascism and the United States 1
Part I Can It Happen Here? US Antifascism in the Time of Dictators, 1932-1941 23
"Fascism after Ten Years" (1932) Wall Street Journal 25
"The Essence of Fascism: A Marxian Interpretation" (1933) Vincenzo Vacirca 27
"What Can We Expect from Hitler? An Estimate of the Probable Economic Policies of Fascist Germany" (1933) M. David Gould 35
"Fascism and Race Hate" (1934) Harry Ward 40
From It Cant Happen Here (1935) Sinclair Lewis 44
Working Class Unity-Bulwark against Fascism (1935) Georgi Dimitrov 54
"Fascist Tendencies in the United States" (1935) William Z. Foster 64
Writings on National Socialism (1936) W. E. B. Du Bois 84
"Hitler, Mussolini and Africa" (1937) George Padmore 88
"Not Anti-Semitism but Anti-Communism" (1938) Charles Coughlin 97
American League for Peace and Democracy, People's Program for Peace and Democracy (1938) 109
"All Races, Creeds Join Picket Line" (1939) Felix Morrow 122
"Mobilizer and Queens Christian Front Street Meeting" (ca. 1940) Avedis Derounian 127
"America First Meeting-Manhattan Center" (1941) Avedis Derounian 134
Part II Antifascism and the State, 1941-1945 139
"The Four Freedoms" (1941) Franklin Roosevelt 141
"The Theory of Racial Imperialism" (1942) Franz Neumann 144
"The Danger of American Fascism" (1944) Henry Wallace 161
"Negro's War Gains and Losses" (1945) W. E. B. Du Bois 166
Part III Antifascism, Anticolonialism, and the Cold War, 1946-1962 171
Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson, and Nevitt Sanford, from The Authoritarian Personality (1950) Theodor Adorno 173
From Discourse on Colonialism (1950) Aimé Césaire 193
Civil Rights Congress, We Charge Genocide (1951) 202
Political Committee of the Socialist Workers Party, "Fascist Menace Grave, SWP Warns: Urges All-Out Labor Offensive to Smash McCarthyism" (1953) 218
"McCarthy and McCarthyism: The New Look at America's Post War Reaction" (1954) Julius Jacobson 221
"The McCarthy Falange" (1954) Alson J. Smith 234
"The Southerner" (1956) Asa Carter Jesse Mabry 244
From Negroes with Guns (1962) Robert F. Williams 247
Part IV The Politics of Backlash and a New United Front, 1968-1971 253
Asian American Political Alliance, "Concentration Camps, USA" (1968) 255
"Racism, Fascism, and Political Murder" (1968) Kathleen Cleaver 260
"Call for a United Front against Fascism" (1969) Black Panther Party 267
Speech at the United Front against Fascism Conference (1969) Penny Nakatsu 270
"UFAF Conference" (1969) Old Mole 273
"Alliances and the Revolutionary Party: The Tactic of the United Front and How It Differs from the Popular Front" (1971) Les Evans 277
Part V Anti/Fascism in the Age of Neoliberalism 287
"The Ku Klux Klan and Fascism" (1982) Ken Lawrence 289
Foreword to Male Fantasies (1987) Barbara Ehrenreich 300
"The Contemporary Political Use of Gay History: The Third Reich" (1991) Stuart Marshall 311
Anti-Racist Action Primer (1999) Anti-Racist Action 326
"Lipstick Fascism" (2017) Sam Miller 331
"Trump's Savage Capitalism: The Nightmare Is Real" (2017) Enzo Traverso 338
"Trump and Everyday Anti-fascism beyond Punching Nazis" (2017) Mark Bray 345
Further Reading 353
Index 359