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Thanks so much for all this. Re state intervention: I'll have to go back and read the part in Brothers Reuther about their stay in the Soviet Union, I assume it had the same impact you describe for others. Thanks for the book order form -- Amazon has only one copy for $185!!! And thanks for the many references. On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 12:35 PM, Paul Flewers via Marxism < [email protected]> wrote: > ====================================================================== > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > ====================================================================== > > > Further to Andy P's reference to my book, The New Civilisation?, and his > comment 'Is there anything akin to this focused specifically on US dupes?, > there is Frank Warren's Liberals and Communism: The 'Red Decade' Revisited > (Columbia Uni Press), originally published in 1966, which looks at some > length at The Nation and The New Republic and other magazines in the 1930s. > I found it an informative work. The former fellow-traveller Eugene Lyons > published in 1941 The Red Decade: The Stalinist Penetration of America, > which, as suggested by the title, is an agitational anti-communist work, > but it does contain quite a bit of useful information. David Caute's The > Fellow Travellers and Paul Hollander's Political Pilgrims look, from a left > and right-wing perspective respectively at pro-Soviet individuals, > including many US ones. > > One thing I noticed when reading through the many descriptions of the > Soviet Union that were published here which has resonated in the light of > the rival descriptions of what's happening in Ukraine today is that reading > anti-Soviet and pro-Soviet material I had the distinct impression that the > authors were describing two entirely different countries, so different were > their descriptions. Reading the many rival reports on the Maidan protests > and the separatist movements and various other aspects of Ukraine today, I > feel that we are getting descriptions of two entirely different places, > almost like parallel dimensions. > > To return to my book, where I feel that it is also useful is that I managed > to go beyond the usual view of the 1930s attitudes towards the Soviet Union > of consisting solely of diametrically-opposed pro-Soviet and anti-communist > viewpoints, and -- as Geoff Foote pointed out in his review -- described > what I call the 'centre ground', that is, a broad swathe of opinion, from > moderate Tories through to right-wing and centre social democrats, who, > whilst strongly rejecting Marxism and workers' revolution (and the > Stalinist interpretations of them), looked to Soviet state economic and > social welfare policies as something from which Western governments could > learn. This was, of course, in the context of the vivid contrast between > Western economic slump and the massive growth under the initial Five-Year > Plans. > > Various authors have looked in passing at how the Soviet economic and > welfare measures were looked at in Britain, and others have looked, at some > length, at the rise of the idea of state intervention in Britain between > the world wars, but none, as far as I know, has systematically brought the > two factors into a single framework of analysis. I imagine that attitudes > towards the New Deal and related state interventionist policies have been > thoroughly investigated in the USA, although whether researchers have done > for the USA what I have done in respect of Britain, I'm unable to say. I > imagine that the situation in the USA was similar to that in Britain, and > that it went beyond the clash of uncritical pro-Soviet and totally > rejectionist anti-Soviet viewpoints. > > I researched and wrote my book, of course, many decades after the event and > in the light of subsequent knowledge, and it was thus much easier to > ascertain what were worthwhile reports and assessments and which were > tendentious or wishful thinking, and to discover that the usual perception > of the 1930s debate as a mere clash of anti-Soviet and pro-Soviet views is > inaccurate. Although it was not impossible at the time to ascertain to a > fair degree what was happening in the Soviet Union in the 1930s and to > ascertain the complexity of the impact of the Soviet experience in Britain, > it needed quite a bit of discretion, a lot of studying of the material, and > the putting aside of preconceptions. That might be a good idea today when > considering events in Ukraine and elsewhere. > > Anyone interested in my book can order it via here < > http://www.francisboutle.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=10&products_id=50 >. > > Paul F > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: [email protected] > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
