2023 Buddy Read: The Early History of the Communist Party of ......

[Cosmic]

We are discussing The Rhetoric of Mao Zedong: Transforming China and Its People
As a Buddy read here! There will be a lot to discuss!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[John]

Since you first mentioned this book Cosmic, I've been watching out for it in the library, or at a reasonable price on Amazon, but neither search has been successful so far. But I'm delighted you are reading it and look forward with interest to your views.

[John]

I've finished Radiant Illusion? Middle-class recruits to Communism in the 1930s. Its title clearly defines what the book is about, and it was an interesting and undemanding read. I'd heard of a few of the people documented, and it was illuminating to note the various, and largely idealistic, motives for joining the party at that time.

At some point I'll have a look to see if something similar exists for American communists of the same period.

[John]

I'm hoping to complete two books in May for this buddy read - Comrade or Brother?: A History of the British Labour Movement by Mary Davis, and John MacLean and Scottish Republicanism by Gerard Cairns.

[John]

In July I'll be reading The General Strike of 1926 by Keith Laybourn.

[John]

I've finished The General Strike of 1926, and it was balanced and informative, and very readable for an "academic" work.

Now I need to try to complete some of the other books I'm part-way through on this buddy read!

[John]

I've also finished General Strike: Day by Day, also by Keith Laybourn. It was interesting, in that it gave you a better sense of the chronology of the developing strike, but it was at the expense of detailed analysis - so on balance I preferred his The General Strike of 1926.

I've just ordered another couple of books by the same author, as I enjoyed both his style and his choice of subjects.

[John]

I've just started another book on the General Strike - The General Strike, 1926, edited by JEFFREY SKELLEY (EDITOR).

I'm still on the first essay, but it's very good so far.

[John]

I'm also reading The British Communist Left: A history of left-wing communism in Britain, 1914-1945 by Mark Hayes. I'm about half-way through at the moment and it's been excellent.

Its just over 100 years since Lenin singled out the British Communist Left for criticism in Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder: A Popular Essay in Marxian Strategy and Tactics; but this book argues that there are lessons to be learned for today from the Communist Left at that time.

I'm particularly enjoying it as I've long believed that Lenin was mistaken in pressuring the young Communist Party to support the Labour Party and reformist trade unions.

[John]

Finished reading The British Communist Left: A history of left-wing communism in Britain, 1914-1945 by Mark Hayes.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and found it very informative - it helped me understand why the Communist party of Great Britain went wrong almost from the start, largely by (understandably at the time) being influenced by the Soviet revolutionaries, rather than following their own beliefs.

I'm sure I'll read more from this author.

[John]

Sort of following on logically from my last book, I'm now about to start The Communist Party of Great Britain, a Historical Analysis to 1941. GR shows this as by an unknown author, but it's quite clearly by Andrew Murray.

I've read a number of articles by Murray, and listened to him speak at some meetings, but this book was from relatively early in his career, so it should be interesting. I've always regarded him (perhaps unfairly) as a Stalinist, so it will also be interesting to watch out for that.

[John]

I've finished The Communist Party of Great Britain, a Historical Analysis to 1941 by Andrew Murray, and it was excellent.

I'm now about to read John Maclean: Hero of Red Clydeside by Henry Bell. This November will be the centenary of MacLean's tragically early death and a number of commemorative events are sure to take place in Glasgow.

[John]

I've finished two books this month - The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin and Lenin, Martov and the Russian Revolution by Cláudio de Oliveira.

Lenin's book is one of the communist classics and is excellent despite some flaws. I was looking forward to learning more about Martov from the other book, but was disappointed. The physical book itself was produced by Amazon and is cheap and shoddy, while the contents are interesting but the really poor translation, and the amount of repetition, put me off a bit.

[John]

I'm currently reading a new book which - as its title makes clear ('The Gleam of Socialism': Britain's Communist Party 1920-2020) - can't be included as part of this buddy read.

But so far I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the subject. Despite being written by the current General Secretary of the Communist party of Britain, it's an open and objective collection of the party's history over its first hundred years.