Re: [Marxism] David Laibman, Review of *“The Most Dangerous Communist in the United States”: A Biography of Herbert Aptheker*, by Gary Murrell

[Thomas via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Once, when much. much younger, I heard him speak.  He explained that the 
Hungarian Revolution, 1956, was a plot by the CIA, that took place against and 
behind the backs of the socialist Hungarian people, and that the Russian tanks 
that rolled into Budapest were called for by the Hungarian people to crush 
counter-revolutionaries, and merely defending socialism. 

T


-Original Message-
>From: Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism 
>Sent: Jun 28, 2016 12:10 AM
>To: Thomas F Barton 
>Subject: [Marxism] David Laibman, Review of *“The Most Dangerous Communist in 
>the United States”: A Biography of Herbert Aptheker*, by Gary Murrell
>
>  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
>#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
>#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
>#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
>*
>
>Science & Society July 2016, Vol. 80, No. 3: 437-440
>
>“The Most Dangerous Communist in the United States”: A Biography of Herbert 
>Aptheker, by Gary Murrell. Afterword by Bettina Aptheker. Amherst/ Boston, 
>Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015. Paper, $29.95. Pp. 
>xviii, 444.
>
>Gary Murrell, Professor of History at Grays Harbor College in Washington 
>State, has given us a much-needed comprehensive study of the life and work of 
>Dr. Herbert Aptheker, Marxist historian and political theoretician. Aptheker’s 
>scholarship on the African American people — with dozens of published works, 
>including the monumental Documentary History of the Negro People in the United 
>States — set the direction of historical research in this area, despite being 
>ignored, repressed and vilified in official academia and in the publishing 
>world. His long association with Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, and his multi-decade 
>editorship of that scholar’s legacy, resulting in another 44 volumes, are yet 
>another signal contribution to U. S. and world letters. His virtual odyssey 
>across the USA’s college campuses, in speaking tours that again spanned 
>decades, became a major element in the counterattack against McCarthy-era 
>repression, and thus in the emergence of the New Left in the 1960s. His 
>testimony in various Smith Act and McCarran Act trials made him a principal 
>voice of reason and the quest for political and intellectual freedom. Finally, 
>his staunch support of the Communist Party USA and his steadfastness in 
>defense of that organization — despite many complexities and tensions in his 
>evolving relationship with the Party’s leadership, and his eventual break with 
>the Party — make him an exceptional, and controversial, figure in the American 
>left in the 20th century and beyond. All of this, and more, is covered in 
>Murrell’s book, based on impressive references, archival study, and many hours 
>of interviews, including centrally with Dr. Aptheker himself.
>
>The story is told in 26 chapters, arranged broadly (if not entirely) in 
>chronological order, covering Aptheker’s early life; his research on slavery 
>and on slave rebellion in the U. S. South; his ever-troubled relationship to 
>the academic and publishing establishment, especially within the history 
>profession; Aptheker’s role in the military in World War II; his defense of 
>the CPUSA during the McCarthy-era attacks; conflicts within the Party 
>concerning control over the publication activities of Party members (including 
>his daughter, Bettina); founding and building of the American Institute for 
>Marxist Studies; running for Congress in the 12th CD in Brooklyn; the trip to 
>Hanoi, with Staughton Lynd and Tom Hayden; the long struggle to publish the Du 
>Bois papers and letters; the movement to free Angela Davis after her arrest, 
>following the events at the courthouse in San Rafael, California, in August 
>1970; the fateful 25th Convention of the CPUSA in Cleveland, in December 1991 
>and the founding of the Committees of Correspondence; and the final years in 
>California, during which Aptheker finally achieved some recognition in 
>academia and secured some teaching posts, which had long been denied him.
>
>On the personal level, we learn of Aptheker’s deep and loving relationship 
>with his wife of many years, Fay, and their daughter Bettina. The latter’s 
>recent testimony concerning sexual abuse by her father during her childhood is 
>discussed in a forthright and dignified manner in the Preface, and is also 
>addressed in Bettina’s “Afterword.”
>
>There are many complex, and 

[Marxism] David Laibman, Review of *“The Most Dangerous Communist in the United States”: A Biography of Herbert Aptheker*, by Gary Murrell

[Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Science & Society July 2016, Vol. 80, No. 3: 437-440

“The Most Dangerous Communist in the United States”: A Biography of Herbert 
Aptheker, by Gary Murrell. Afterword by Bettina Aptheker. Amherst/ Boston, 
Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015. Paper, $29.95. Pp. 
xviii, 444.

Gary Murrell, Professor of History at Grays Harbor College in Washington State, 
has given us a much-needed comprehensive study of the life and work of Dr. 
Herbert Aptheker, Marxist historian and political theoretician. Aptheker’s 
scholarship on the African American people — with dozens of published works, 
including the monumental Documentary History of the Negro People in the United 
States — set the direction of historical research in this area, despite being 
ignored, repressed and vilified in official academia and in the publishing 
world. His long association with Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, and his multi-decade 
editorship of that scholar’s legacy, resulting in another 44 volumes, are yet 
another signal contribution to U. S. and world letters. His virtual odyssey 
across the USA’s college campuses, in speaking tours that again spanned 
decades, became a major element in the counterattack against McCarthy-era 
repression, and thus in the emergence of the New Left in the 1960s. His 
testimony in various Smith Act and McCarran Act trials made him a principal 
voice of reason and the quest for political and intellectual freedom. Finally, 
his staunch support of the Communist Party USA and his steadfastness in defense 
of that organization — despite many complexities and tensions in his evolving 
relationship with the Party’s leadership, and his eventual break with the Party 
— make him an exceptional, and controversial, figure in the American left in 
the 20th century and beyond. All of this, and more, is covered in Murrell’s 
book, based on impressive references, archival study, and many hours of 
interviews, including centrally with Dr. Aptheker himself.

The story is told in 26 chapters, arranged broadly (if not entirely) in 
chronological order, covering Aptheker’s early life; his research on slavery 
and on slave rebellion in the U. S. South; his ever-troubled relationship to 
the academic and publishing establishment, especially within the history 
profession; Aptheker’s role in the military in World War II; his defense of the 
CPUSA during the McCarthy-era attacks; conflicts within the Party concerning 
control over the publication activities of Party members (including his 
daughter, Bettina); founding and building of the American Institute for Marxist 
Studies; running for Congress in the 12th CD in Brooklyn; the trip to Hanoi, 
with Staughton Lynd and Tom Hayden; the long struggle to publish the Du Bois 
papers and letters; the movement to free Angela Davis after her arrest, 
following the events at the courthouse in San Rafael, California, in August 
1970; the fateful 25th Convention of the CPUSA in Cleveland, in December 1991 
and the founding of the Committees of Correspondence; and the final years in 
California, during which Aptheker finally achieved some recognition in academia 
and secured some teaching posts, which had long been denied him.

On the personal level, we learn of Aptheker’s deep and loving relationship with 
his wife of many years, Fay, and their daughter Bettina. The latter’s recent 
testimony concerning sexual abuse by her father during her childhood is 
discussed in a forthright and dignified manner in the Preface, and is also 
addressed in Bettina’s “Afterword.”

There are many complex, and often troubling, stories packed into this life, and 
no possibility of recounting them in a short review. Murrell is eloquent in his 
admiration for Aptheker’s accomplishments, in both their political and their 
scholarly dimensions: Aptheker is credited with altering fundamentally the 
historiography of the Black people in the United States; with being a prescient 
critic of the predatory foreign policy of that country; and with being a 
singular champion of democracy and human rights. But Murrell is also critical, 
where he feels the need for criticism. On the latter, here is a summary 
passage, from the final chapter, “Now It’s Your Turn” (354):

". . . for all his accomplishments, there was a terrible flaw in Aptheker. On 
the one hand, as the historian Chris Phelps wrote in the Chronicle of Higher 
Education, 'the extent to which Herbert Aptheker could symbolize intellectual 
freedom . . . was profoundly limited by his habitual excusing of repression by 
single-party regimes cast in the Soviet mold. . . .' . . . Then, too, members 
of the CPUSA around the country looked up