Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left

Book Overview

Red Diapers is the
first anthology of autobiographical writings by the children of American
communists. These memoirs, short stories, and poems reflect the joys and
perils of growing up in a subculture defined by its opposition to some
of society's most deeply held values. How red diaper babies have come
to terms with their political inheritance is the theme of this compelling
anthology.
Some contributors have fond
memories of family activism; others recall the past with ambivalence or
even pain. The authors range in age from their twenties to their eighties.
Some, such as Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein and sixties activist Bettina
Aptheker, are widely known themselves; some are the children of well-known
American leftists, including Jeff Lawson, son of blacklisted screenwriter
John Howard Lawson, and Robert Meeropol, son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
In disparate voices, the contributors elaborate on how their parents attempted
to pass on to them the torch of radical politics.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252067258
• ISBN13: 9780252067259
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Red Diapers

If I had read nothing but the introduction I would have been more than rewarded. For one who belongs to this select group it answered many questions I have had about some of my strange, interesting and frustrating characteristics, not too late in the 78 years of my life. I am grateful to the authors and wish i had discovered it sooner.

When life was always a Party

This is a unique anthology of memoirs of kids who grew up in the 40's and 50's, in the "pink" shadow of the American Communist Party. Most of the nearly fifty contributors of this book are children of Eastern Jewish immigrants. Here are their fascinating memories: Joyous ones of Pioneer Camp, The Daily Worker, public rallies in support of women, workers, minorities, and disarmament. Fearful recollections of the Rosenberg executions, McCartyism, clandestine CP meetings, FBI surveillance, and the dreaded knock on the door in the middle of the night. Disillusioned remembrances of Khrushchev's denouncement of Stalin and the devastating revelation that "Uncle Joe" and the "Workers' Paradise" of the USSR were not what American Communists naively believed. Few of these writers still belong to the CP. A small number speak resentfully of parents who put the Party before family, exposing their children to bigotry and violence or to the anxiety and deprivation of a life "underground". The Party's over. But the great majority of these writers proudly retain their strong leftist values and ideals, and continue to practice the social activism instilled during childhood. This book gives a human and humane dimension to a misled but often wrongfully vilified American political movement.

An extraordinary, insightful and original book.

This highly orginal book did not get the press it deserved when it was first published. It is a collection of brief, yet moving reminiscences written by "red diaper babies" whose parents had a connection -- some more than others -- with the "Movement". It is a definite "must read" for anyone who grew up in the fifties -- whether or not he or she wore red, pink or any other shade of diaper! -- whose parents did not share the prevailing political opinions of the times.