Description
Book SynopsisThis book chronicles the struggle among non-Communist leftists and liberals over American relations with the Soviet Union from 1939 through the 1950s. Few now care as passionately and as violently as people did then about Soviet-American relations. It was a time when friends became enemies, and others forged strange alliances, all in the name of commitments that today seem remote. A Better World evokes those times and their choices, and explains why these long-ago battles still arouse such deep feelings today - and should.Americans who were pro-Soviet without being members of the Communist party - ''progressives'' as they called themselves - had a large emotional investment in the Soviet Union. From 1935 to 1939 literally millions joined the ''Popular Front'' of pro-Soviet organizations. O''Neill takes us through the shock of the Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939, through the revival of the Popular Front spurred by government and business support after Russia entered the war against Hitler. H
Table of ContentsIntroduction to the Transaction Edition -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- I In Shock: August 24, 1939-June 22, 1941 -- II The “People’s War” Begins: 1941-1943 -- III The Revival of Anti-Stalinism -- IV The “People’s War” Falters: 1943-1945 -- V In the Postwar -- VI The Rise and Fall of Henry Wallace -- VII The Eclipse of Progressivism -- VIII The Blacklist -- IX China: Progressive Paradox -- X The Question of Liberal Guilt -- XI The Academy and the Crisis of Liberalism -- XII Rewriting the Past -- XIII Conclusions -- Notes -- Index.
