The following is a bibliography on American Communism, listing some of the most important works on the topic.
- For the main article to which this is linked see Communist Party USA.
- For an annotated list of publications published by the Communist Party USA, see List of Communist publications.
General articles
- Bittelman, Alexander. "Outline for a History of the Communist Party in America. (circa 1923)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-25. Retrieved 2010-02-19. (126 KiB). Published as “Hynes Exhibit No. 4” in Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1930), pp. 435–448. Published on line by http://www.marxisthistory.org. Retrieved June 11, 2006.
- Nash, Michael. "Communist History at the Tamiment Library" (PDF). (4.22 MiB). American Communist History, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2004. Retrieved April 3, 2006.
General histories
- Buhle, Paul, Marxism in the USA: Remapping the History of the American Left. London: Verso, 1987.
- Cannon, James P., The First Ten Years of American Communism: Report of a Participant. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1962.
- Dobbs, Farrell, Marxist Leadership in the U.S.: Revolutionary Continuity: Birth of the Communist Movement, 1918-1922. New York: Monad Press, 1983.
- Draper, Theodore, The Roots of American Communism. New York: Viking, 1957.
- Draper, Theodore, American Communism and Soviet Russia: The Formative Period. New York: Viking, 1960.
- Foster, William Z., History of the Communist Party of the United States. New York: International Publishers, 1952.
- Howe, Irving and Lewis Coser, The American Communist Party: A Critical History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1957.
- Isserman, Maurice, Which Side Were You On?: The American Communist Party During the Second World War. Wesleyan University Press, 1982 and 1987.
- Jaffe, Philip J., Rise and Fall of American Communism. Horizon Press, 1975.
- Klehr, Harvey. The Heyday of American Communism:The Depression Decade, Basic Books, 1984.
- Klehr, Harvey and Haynes, John Earl, The American Communist Movement: Storming Heaven Itself, Twayne Publishers (Macmillan), 1992.
- Klehr, Harvey, John Earl Haynes, and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov. The Secret World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
- Klehr, Harvey, Kyrill M. Anderson, and John Earl Haynes. The Soviet World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
- Lewy, Guenter, The Cause That Failed: Communism in American Political Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
- Oneal, James, American Communism: A Critical Analysis of Its Origins, Development, and Programs. New York: Rand Book Store, 1927. Revised ed. 1948.
- Ottanelli, Fraser M., The Communist Party of the United States: From the Depression to World War II. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991.
- Palmer, Bryan, James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928. Urbana, IL: Illinois University Press, 2007.
- Richmond, Al, A Long View from the Left: Memoirs of an American Revolutionary. 447 pages, Houghton Mifflin, 1973.
- Shannon, David A., The Decline of American Communism: A History of the Communist Party of the United States since 1945. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1959.
- Starobin, Joseph R., American Communism in Crisis, 1943-1957. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.
- Stevenson, Archibald (ed.), Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics...Being the Report of the Joint Legislative Committee Investigating Seditious Activities, Filed April 24, 1920, in the Senate of the State of New York: Part 1: Revolutionary and Subversive Movements Abroad and at Home. In Two Volumes. (AKA the "Lusk Report.") Albany, NY: J.B. Lyon, 1920.
- Jacob A. Zumoff, "The Communist International and US Communism, 1919-1929." Leiden: Brill, 2014.
Regional and local histories
- Holmes, T. Michael, The Specter of Communism in Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.
- Kelley, Robin D. G., Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press, 1990.
- Lyons, Paul, Philadelphia Communists, 1936-1956. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982
- Pedersen, Vernon L., The Communist Party in Maryland. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001.
- Storch, Randi, Red Chicago: American Communism at Its Grassroots, 1928-35. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
Social composition of the Communist movement
- Glazer, Nathan, The Social Basis of American Communism. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961.
- Klehr, Harvey E., Communist Cadre: The Social Background of the American Communist Party, Hoover Institution Press, 1960, ISBN 0-685-67279-4
- Kraditor, Aileen S., Jimmy Higgins: The Mental World of the American Rank-And-File Communist, 1930-1958. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1988. ISBN 0-313-26246-2
Participant memoirs
- Bailey, Bill, The Kid From Hoboken: An Autobiography. San Francisco: Circus Lithograph Press, 1993.
- Chambers, Whittaker, Witness. New York: Random House, 1952.
- Eastman, Max, Love and Revolution: My Journey Through an Epoch. New York: Random House, 1964.
- Foster, William Z., From Bryan to Stalin. New York: International Publishers, 1937.
- Foster, William Z., Pages from a Worker's Life. New York: International Publishers, 1939.
- Freeman, Joseph, An American Testament: A Narrative of Rebels and Romantics. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1936.
- Gates, John, The Story of An American Communist. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1958.
- Gitlow, Benjamin, I Confess: The Truth About American Communism. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1940.
- Gitlow, Benjamin, Witness. New York: Random House, 1952.
- Gornick, Vivian, The Romance of American Communism., New York: Basic Books, 1977.
- Healey, Dorothy and Isserman, Maurice, Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
- Mitford, Jessica, A Fine Old Conflict. New York: Vintage Books USA, 1977.
- Nelson, Steve, Barrett, James R., and Ruck, Rob, Steve Nelson: American Radical. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1981.
- Scriber, Tom, Lumberjack. Santa Cruz, CA: Redwood Ripsaw, 1966.
- Shipman, Charles, It Had to Be Revolution: Memoirs of an American Radical. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
- Richmond, Al, A Long View from the Left: Memoirs of an American Revolutionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973.
- Schrank, Robert, Wasn't That a Time? Growing Up Radical and Red in America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998.
- Williamson, John, Dangerous Scot: The Life and Work of an American "Undesirable." New York: International Publishers, 1969.
- Wolfe, Bertram D., A Life in Two Centuries: An Autobiography. New York: Stein and Day, 1981.
- Wolfe, Bertram D., Strange Communists I Have Known. New York: Stein and Day, 1965.
Biographies of leading participants
- Barrett, James R., William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999.
- Buhle, Paul M., A Dreamer's Paradise Lost: Louis C. Fraina/Lewis Corey (1892–1953) and the Decline of Radicalism in the United States. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1995.
- Camp, Helen C., Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 1995.
- Johanningsmeier, Edward P., Forging American Communism: The Life of William Z. Foster. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.
- Johnson, Oakley C., The Day is Coming: Life and Work of Charles E. Ruthenberg. New York: International Publishers, 1957.
- Morgan, Ted, A Covert Life: Jay Lovestone: Communist, Anti-Communist, and Spymaster. New York: Random House, 1999.
- O'Neill, William L., The Last Romantic: A Life of Max Eastman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
- Hicks, Granville with Stuart, John, John Reed: The Making of a Revolutionary. New York: Macmillan, 1936.
- Ryan, James G. (1997), Earl Browder: The Failure of American Communism., University of Alabama Press, ISBN 0-8173-0843-1
- Shields, Art, On the Battle Lines, 1919-1939. New York: International Publishers, 1986.
- Strong, Tracy B. and Keyssar, Helene, Right in Her Soul: The Life of Anna Louise Strong. New York: Random House, 1983.
- Young, Art, Art Young—His Life and Times. New York: Sheridan House, 1939.
- Zipser, Arthur and Zipser, Pearl, Fire and Grace: The Life of Rose Pastor Stokes. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1989.
The Communist Party and the trade unions
- Bimba, Anthony, History of the American Working Class. New York: International Publishers, 1927.
- Cochran, Bert, Labor and Communism: The Conflict That Shaped American Unions, Princeton University Press, 1977, ISBN 0-691-04644-1
- Foner, Philip S., History of the Labor Movement in the United States. (In 10 Volumes) New York: International Publishers, 1948-1994.
- Freeman, Joshua B. In Transit: The Transport Workers Union in New York City, 1933-1966.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001. ISBN 1-56639-922-X
- Gibson, Rich, "The Torment and Demise of the United Auto Workers' Union." https://web.archive.org/web/20121029191136/http://clogic.eserver.org/2006/gibson.html
- Kampelman, Max M., Communist Party vs the CIO: A Study in Power Politics. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1957.
- Keeran, Roger, Communist Party and the Auto Workers Unions. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-253-15754-4
- Levenstein, Harvey, Communism, Anticommunism, and the CIO. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. ISBN 0-313-22072-7
- Salmond, John A., Gastonia 1929: The Story of the Loray Mill Strike. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8078-2237-X
- Saposs, David J., Left Wing Unionism: A Study of Radical Policies and Tactics. New York: International Publishers, 1926.
- Schatz, Ronald W. Electrical Workers: A History of Labor at General Electric and Westinghouse, 1923-60. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN 0-252-01031-0
- Schneider, David M., The Workers' (Communist) Party and American Trade Unions. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1928.
The Communist Party and agriculture
- Daniel, Cletus E. Bitter Harvest: A History of California Farmworkers, 1870-1941. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981; paper: Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982.
- Dyson, Lowell K., Red Harvest: The Communist Party and American Farmers, University of Nebraska Press, 1982. ISBN 0-8032-1659-9
- Kelley, Robin D.G. Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8078-4288-5
The Communist Party and youth
- Cohen, Robert, When the Old Left Was Young: Student Radicals and America's First Mass Student Movement, 1929-1941. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
- Mishler, Paul C., Raising Reds: The Young Pioneers, Radical Summer Camps, and Communist Political Culture in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
The Communist Party and women
- Slutsky, Beth. Gendering Radicalism: Women and Communism in Twentieth-Century California. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2015.
- Weigand, Kate. Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
The Communist Party and intellectuals
- Aaron, Daniel, Writers on the Left: Episodes in American Literary Communism. New York: Harcourt Brace & World, 1959.
- Horne, Gerald, Class Struggle in Hollywood, 1930-1950. Austin: University of Texas, 0292731388
- Schwartz, Lawrence H. Marxism and Culture: The CPUSA and Aesthetics in the 1930s, Authors Choice Press, 2000. ISBN 0-595-12751-7
- Wald, Alan Exiles from a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth Century Literary Left. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8078-5349-6
The Communist Party and Black Americans
- Carter, Dan T. Scottsboro a Tragedy of the American South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972; paper: Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.
- DuBois, W.E.B., The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois. New York: International Publishers. ISBN 0-7178-0234-5
- Foner, Philip S., Organized Labor and the Black Worker. New York: International Publishers. ISBN 0-7178-0594-8
- Foner, Philip S. and Allen, James S. (eds.), American Communism and Black Americans: A Documentary History, 1919-1929. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987.
- Foner, Philip S. and Shapiro, Herbert (eds.), American Communism and Black Americans: A Documentary History, 1930-1934. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-87722-761-6
- Haywood, Harry, Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist. Chicago: Liberator Press, 1978. ISBN 0-930720-53-9
- Martin, Charles H. The Angelo Herndon Case and Southern Justice. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1976. ISBN 0-8071-0174-5
- Naison, Mark, Communists in Harlem During the Depression. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN 0-252-00644-5
- Painter, Nell Irvin. The Narrative of Hosea Hudson: His Life as a Negro Communist in the South. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-674-60110-6
- Pintzuk, Edward C. Reds, Racial Justice, and Civil Liberties: Michigan Communists During the Cold War. MEP Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-930656-71-7
- Record, Wilson, The Negro and the Communist Party. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1951.
- Solomon, Mark, The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917-1936. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press, 1998. ISBN 1-57806-095-8
- Yates, James, Mississippi to Madrid: Memoir of a Black American in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Open Hand Publishing, 1989. ISBN 0-940880-20-2
- Zumoff, Jacob A. The Communist International and US Communism, 1919-1929. Leiden: Brill, 2014. Especially chapters 14-17.
The Communist Party and ethnic radicalism
- Bengston, Henry, On the Left in America: Memoirs of the Scandinavian-American Labor Movement. [1955] Kermit B. Westerbrook, trans. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.
- Buhle, Paul, and Georgakas, Dan (eds.), The Immigrant Left in the United States. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.
- Epstein, Melech, The Jew and Communism, 1919-1941. New York: Trade Union Sponsoring Committee, n.d. [1959].
- Karni, Michael G. and Ollila Jr., Douglas J., For the Common Good: Finnish Immigrants and hithe United States: The Case of Finns and the Left. Rutherford, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984.
- Kostiainen, Auvo, The Forging of Finnish-American Communism, 1917-1924: A Study in Ethnic Radicalism. Turku, Finland: University of Turku, Turku, Finland, 1978.
- Rosenblum, Gerald, Immigrant Workers: Their Impact on American Labor Radicalism. New York: Basic Books, 1973.
- Sherman, John W., A Communist Front at Mid-Century: The American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, 1933-1959. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001.
- Szajkowski, Zosa, Jews, Wars and Communism: Vol. 1: The Attitude of American Jews to World War I, the Russian Revolutions of 1917, and Communism (1914–1945). New York: Ktav, 1972.
- Morray, J.P., Project Kuzbas: American Workers in Siberia (1921–1926). New York: International Publishers, 1983.
- Mullen, Bill V., Popular Fronts. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999. ISBN 0-252-06748-7
- Rosenstone, Robert, Crusade on the Left: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War. Pegasus, 1969.
- Saxton, Alexander, The Great Midland. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Intra-party opposition movements
- Alexander, Robert J., The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. ISBN 0-313-22070-0
- Cannon, James P., The History of American Trotskyism: Report of a Participant. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1944.
- Myers, Constance Ashton, The Prophet's Army: Trotskyists in America, 1928-1941. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977. ISBN 0-8371-9030-4
Organized anti-communism and McCarthyism
- Ceplair, Larry and Englund, Steven, Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930-1960. New York: Doubleday, 1980. paper: Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
- Fried, Richard M., Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
- Hoover, J. Edgar, Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1958.
- Jaffe, Julian F., Crusade Against Radicalism: New York During the Red Scare, 1914-1924. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1972.
- Kornweibel Jr., Theodore, "Seeing Red": Federal Campaigns Against Black Militancy, 1919-1925. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-253-33337-7
- McCormick, Charles H., Seeing Reds: Federal Surveillance of Radicals in the Pittsburgh Mill District, 1917-1921. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995.
- Murray, Robert K., Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955.
- Oshinsky, David M. A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.
- Preston Jr., William, Aliens and Dissenters: Federal Suppression of Radicals, 1903-1933. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
- Reeves, Thomas C., Life and Times of Joe McCarthy. New York: Stein & Day, 1983. ISBN 0-8128-2337-0
- Jacob Spolansky (1951). The Communist Trail in America. Macmillan.
Espionage, infiltration, and Soviet funding
- Andrew, Christopher and Mitrokhin, Vasili, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, New York: Basic Books, 1999. ISBN 0-465-00310-9.
- John Barron, Operation Solo: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin. Chicago: Regnery Publishing, 1996; 2nd ed.: 2001, ISBN 0-7091-6061-5.
- Haynes, John Earl, and Klehr, Harvey, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.
- Meeropol, Robert, An Execution in the Family. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003.
- Latham, Earl, Communist Controversy in Washington: From the New Deal to McCarthy, Holiday House, 1972.
- Radosh, Ronald and Joyce Milton, The Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth. New York: Henry Holt, 1983. 2nd edition: New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1997.
- Schecter, Jerrold and Leona, Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History, Potomac Books, 2002.
- Sudoplatov, Pavel Anatoli, Schecter, Jerrold L., and Schecter, Leona P., Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness—A Soviet Spymaster. Boston: Little Brown, 1994.
- Weinstein, Allen, Perjury: The Hiss–Chambers Case. New York: Knopf, 1978.
- Weinstein, Allen, and Vassiliev, Alexander, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America - the Stalin Era. New York: Random House, 1999.
- Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy Report, Appendix A, 4. The Encounter with Communism (1997)
- Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive. American Revolution into the New Millennium: A Counterintelligence Reader: "Cold War Counterintelligence". Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-03-20.. Volume 3, Chapter 1. U.S. Government on line publication. No date. Retrieved May 25, 2005.
Historiography
- Isserman, Maurice, "The New History of American Communism Revisited." Reviews in American History, 20. 1992. 536 - 542. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Other References
- Roberts, Geoffrey (2006), Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-11204-1