Revolutionary Continuity: Birth of the Communist Movement 1918-1922

by Farrell Dobbs

A Pathfinder upgraded edition. How successive generations of fighters joined in the struggles that shaped the U.S. labor movement, seeking to build a class-conscious revolutionary leadership capable of advancing the interests of workers and small farmers and linking up with fellow toilers worldwide. 2nd of 2 vols. Author's preface, photos, and maps. Four 1915 letters from V.I. Lenin to left-wing U.S.socialists. Now with enlarged type.

368 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 1983

Reviews

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second and last (because of Dobbs' death) of his series on Marxist leadership in the United States. This one starts in 1918 with revolutionaries regrouping (primarily in the left-wing of the Socialist Party) to form a party like the one that led the Russian Revolution. Dobbs has his own ideas and views the fight for "Americanization" of the US party in a somewhat different way than James P. Cannon did in his writings. The first volume of the series is Revolutionary Continuity Vol. 1: Marxist Leadership in the U. S., 1848-1917.

But this should be studied in conjunction with books like Cannon's First Ten Years of American Communism: Report of a Participant and The History of American Trotskyism, 1928—1938: Report of a Participant.