Johns Hopkins University Press Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation (Reconfiguring American Political History)

Product Description Drawing on substantial new research, Red Feminism traces the development of a distinctive Communist strain of American feminism from its troubled beginnings in the 1930s, through its rapid growth in the Congress of American Women during the early years of the Cold War, to its culmination in Communist Party circles of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The author argues persuasively that, despite the devastating effects of anti-Communism and Stalinism on the progressive Left of the 1950s, Communist feminists such as Susan B. Anthony II, Betty Millard, and Eleanor Flexner managed to sustain many important elements of their work into the 1960s, when a new generation took up their cause and built an effective movement for women's liberation. Red Feminism provides a more complex view of the history of the modern women's movement, showing how key Communist activists came to understand gender, sexism, and race as central components of culture, economics, and politics in American society. Review "Richly detailed... It will appeal to general readers interested in the history of U.S. progressive movements and women's history." ( Publishers Weekly) "The gulf between first- and second-wave feminism seems less broad thanks to this thoughtful analysis of women's activism with the Communist Party U.S.A. between World War II and the mid-1950s... An important supplement to standard histories of American feminism." ( Booklist) "Weigand's staggeringly extensive research draws from previously unused sources, including the U.S. Communist press and the letters published therein on feminism. Red Feminism will become a classic work at the intersection of radical, feminist, and African-American history." (Marvin E. Gettleman, Brooklyn Polytechnic University) "This excellent book will play a strong part in passing on ideas and concepts to future Democrats, Republicans, Communists, and citizens of the world." (Char Roone Miller History of Education Quarterly) "An interesting, well-documented book." (Marian J. Morton American Historical Review) About the Author Kate Weigand is an archivist at the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College and teaches courses in U.S. history and women's studies.