How antifascism is as American as apple pie
Bill V. Mullen is Professor of American Studies at Purdue University. He is the author of James Baldwin: Living in Fire (forthcoming, Pluto Press); UnAmerican: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Century of World Revolution and Afro-Orientalism. He is co-editor, with Ashley Dawson, of Against Apartheid: The Case for Boycotting Israeli Universities. His articles have appeared in Social Text, African-American Review and American Quarterly. He is a member of the organizing collective of USACBI (U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) and a founding member of the Campus Antifascist Network. Chris Vials is an Associate Professor of English and Director of American Studies at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. He is the author of Haunted by Hitler: Liberals, the Left, and the Fight against Fascism in the United States (2014) as well as numerous pieces on fascism and antifascism in the United States. He has appeared on CBC radio, PBS, and NPR to discuss the history of American fascist and antifascist movements. He is also co-founder of the Neighbor Fund, a non-profit devoted to legal defense for undocumented immigrants in Connecticut.
Praise for Haunted by Hitler:
With insight and grace, Christopher Vials demonstrates compelling
new ways of understanding a complicated tradition of the Left and
U.S. culture. The steady flow of astute interpretations and
commentary adds up to scholarship of enduring importance, a
treasure trove for the specialist and general reader alike.
*Alan Wald, author of American Night: The Literary Left in the Era
of the Cold War*
Praise for: Un-American: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Century of World
Revolution
Un-American is a bold and long overdue inquiry into 'the late Du
Bois,' full of keen originality and brilliantly associative
thinking. With his signature level of professional competence,
Mullen defies easy categorizations to track the black radical
scholar's diasporic identity through the optic of 'world
revolution.' This investigation, vexed by the political horrors of
imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism, yields unexpected and
revealing parallels with the ideas of revolutionary thinkers such
as Leon Trotsky and C. L. R. James. The result is a landmark study
in the contours of affiliation, expanding the archive and breaking
down polarized thought. This is a book to engage, chew over, and
debate.
*Alan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor of American
Culture, University of Michigan*
Praise for: Un-American: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Century of World
Revolution:
In this expansively researched and expertly crafted biography of
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) on the global stage, Mullen revisits the
often contradictory and dialectical actions, thoughts, hopes, and
writings of the sociologist and civil rights activist through
post-World War II toward the end of the Cold War.... Mullen has
considerable depth and nuance for the work of revisiting his
subject as an international figure.... Mullen succeeds in weaving a
revisionist narrative that positions Du Bois as a world actor
within the revolutionary movements of the 20th century. VERDICT For
readers interested in historical biographies situated in
international politics and Cold War history.
*Library Journal*
Praise for: Un-American: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Century of World
Revolution:
Bill Mullen's new book Un-American explores...Du Bois' thought more
thoroughly than any previous work. While every commentator on Du
Bois has acknowledged his politics, Mullen shows us how central
revolutionary thought was to Du Bois' entire intellectual
trajectory in the twentieth century.... This book will open an
entirely new window on the radical politics that animated most of
his life's work.... Mullen's intervention will surely be felt...for
years to come and deserves to be read by everyone with an interest
in Black politics and the history of American socialism.
*International Socialist Review*
Praise for: Un-American: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Century of World
Revolution:
This is the sort of thoughtful and challenging book that remains
with you, that gets you nodding your head unconsciously in
agreement, muttering disapprovals, racing to the bookshelf to look
up something. It is an essential addition to the canon of W. E. B.
Du Bois scholarship.... Mullen wonderfully braids Du Bois's
intellectual journey to an eclectic group of revolutionaries
likewise drawn-at various times and in different ways-to the
project of communist internationalism.... And he explores Du Bois's
engagements with liberation struggles in India and China, Japan's
global emergence, the specter of Stalinism, and the global peace
work engendered by a dynamic cadre of leftist black women,
particularly Claudia Jones and Shirley Graham Du Bois. Mullen's
treatment of Smedley, Strong, and Jones is particularly sharp and
illuminating.
*Journal of American History*
Praise for: Popular Fronts: Chicago and African-American Cultural
Politics 1935-1946:
Mullen marries investigation and a well-executed idea of story in
this well-researched piece of scholarship on black art, black
literature and literary publications, and the cultural politics of
Chicago's African American community.
*Choice*
Praise for: Popular Fronts: Chicago and African-American Cultural
Politics 1935-1946:
Mullen's mission is to refresh our cultural memories. He wants to
remind us not only of African American cultural production in the
'Chicago Renaissance' that took place before and during World War
II, but also that the U.S. Left--in the form of the Communist Party
and the individuals and organizations of its Popular Front--played
a significant role in the period.
*American Historical Review*
Praise for: Popular Fronts: Chicago and African-American Cultural
Politics 1935-1946:
All readers who are interested in the history of Chicago, African
American culture, and leftist politics are sure to find some
benefit from Mullen's richly detailed and boldly revisionist
study.
*Journal of Illinois History*
Praise for Afro-Orientalism:
In Afro-Orientalism, Bill Mullen produces an alternative history to
the postcolonial present that is rich with theoretical interest and
political promise.
*Amitava Kumar, author of Passport Photos and Bomba–London–New
York*
Praise for W.E.B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line:
W. E. B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line serves as a
timely introduction to this impressive and somewhat imposing
figure, while also reframing Du Bois's life and work beyond the
boundaries of the American context.
*Inside Higher Ed*
Praise for W.E.B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line:
In this new biography, Mullen interprets the seismic political
developments of the Twentieth Century through the revolutionary
life of W.E.B. Du Bois-focusing not just on his Civil Rights work,
but also examining Du Bois's attitudes towards socialism, the USSR,
China's Communist Revolution, and the relationship between
capitalism, poverty and racism.
*Critical Theory*
Praise for W.E.B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line:
With Du Bois's Marxist leanings in mind, Mullen's strategy is to
reinterpret much of what is already known. As biography, the book
is very well written, informative, and insightful.
*Choice*
Praise for W.E.B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line:
While some scholars have tried to domesticate DuBois and confine
his intellectual and political life within the boundaries of
capitalist hegemony, DuBois was in fact a life-long revolutionary
committed to socialism, Pan-Africanism and Black Liberation, a man
who late in life - partly as a direct challenge to McCarthyism and
the Cold War - joined the Communist Party, USA. Mullen's W.E.B.
DuBois: Revolutionary Across The Color Line corrects the record,
highlighting a side of DuBois many would like us to forget. It is a
must read for anyone interested in the life and work of this
pioneering Black revolutionary.
*People's World*
Praise for W.E.B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line:
Examines the life of W. E. B. Du Bois and his relationship to key
questions of the revolutionary left in the twentieth century,
placing Du Bois within a framework of figures of the global left
and demonstrating the centrality of radical internationalism to his
life and thought.
*Journal of Economic Literature*
Praise for W.E.B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line:
Mullen's illuminating biography is essential for understanding the
political, personal, and intellectual challenges Du Bois faced in
his lifetime search for a black revolutionary praxis.
*Mary Helen Washington, University of Maryland*
Praise for Haunted by Hitler:
Vials's rehabilitation of the long-standing and abiding American
antifascist tradition is a game-changer for those interested in the
'f word' (fascism) and for those who want to understand both
liberal and left politics in the 'American Century.
*Doug Rossinow, author of Visions of Progress: The Left-Liberal
Tradition in America*
Praise for Haunted by Hitler:
Vials's scholarship-its mix of secondary sources drawn from a wide
array of contemporary and current scholars and archival and primary
materials-produces a rich matrix that grounds the argument. This is
a compelling read.
*Paula Rabinowitz, author of American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought
Modernism to Main Street*
Praise for Haunted by Hitler:
An involved study . . . Vials's exploration of Rod Serling's
concern about right-wing extremism is worth the price of this
volume and provides fascinating reflections about The Twilight
Zone. Recommended.
*Choice*
Praise for Haunted by Hitler:
Vials has much to offer. His sources are many and varied, ranging
from interviews with some of those engaged in antifascist efforts
in the earliest days to material culled from the electronic
databases of American newspapers and the recent work of other
scholars. He has insightful commentary and a cogent argument for
recognizing the value of antifascists movements of the past eight
decades and understanding their relevance today.
*Yearbook of German American Studies*
Praise for Haunted by Hitler:
The governing idea for the author is that properly evaluating these
troublesome political trends is essential to the ability to counter
them effectively. In service of this project, he offers readers
three crucial tools: clear definition, astute historical grounding,
and perhaps most absorbing, and indexical view of a fascinating
repository of left-liberal, antifascist scholarly and cultural
articulations.
*Against the Current*
Praise for Haunted by Hitler:
[An] impressive study of the history and vitality of antifascism, .
. . clear and eminently readable.
*Journal of American History*
Praise for Haunted by Hitler:
Haunted by Hitler is rich and exciting to read and leaves no doubt
that a history of anti-fascism in America exists.
*Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft*
Praise for Haunted by Hitler:
Christopher Vials's impressively researched and politically
important book is the first to argue that 'anti-fascism has . . .
constituted a coherent body of cultural work in the United
States'.
*Science & Society*
This is a crucial reader for our current political moment. It is a
massive and rich archive, historicizing, theorizing, querying, and
interrogating fascism in its many US varieties. This reader
unearths and connects the anti-fascist responses in a plethora of
sites-the Black Panthers and other anti-racist movements, LGBT pink
triangle activists, and the Antifa. It will give you the knowledge
to embolden yourself to resist and revolt.
*Anti-Racist Feminist Activist, Ithaca College*
This volume should be read by everyone who thinks they know what
fascism is, and everyone who does not, for it provides a rich and
indispensable set of materials to give depth and meaning to the
word 'fascism', precisely when we need a comprehensive and varied
archive to inform anti-fascist struggles. If you want to know what
fascism has been and can be, read this book. We ignore it at our
peril.
*David Palumbo-Liu, Stanford University*
Serious about destroying fascism? Study the US Antifascism
Reader.
*Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook*
Exceptionally well organized and presented.
*Midwest Book Review*
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