James P. Cannon as We Knew Him

By Harry Deboer and Ted Selander

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873485009
• ISBN13: 9780873485005
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: Pathfinder
• Length: 376 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Portrait of an American communist

The reminiscences in this book are a wonderful insight into the personal and political life of James P. Cannon, a key revolutionary figure in the 20th century. Cannon took on tremendous challenges, such as standing up to the rise of Stalinism and speaking out against US entry in World War II. His actions sometimes isolated him from former comrades and coworkers and even landed him in prison. But as these stories show, Cannon took these events in stride. His goal was to build a revolutionary party that could lead the working class to power and he knew it wouldn't be smooth sailing. He embraced life, never lost his sense of humor, and was always ready for the next battle, whatever the odds. Because of their many years of close collaboration, this book contains some anecdotes and background information about Cannon's companion, Rose Karsner, another pioneer communist in the United States. If you haven't read History of American Trotskyism or The First Ten Years of American Communism, both by Cannon, pick those up as well.

a revolutionary fighter for three generations

James P. Cannon began his political life in the days of Eugene V. Debs. He became a partisan of the 1917 Russian Revolution, a founder of the Communist Party of the U.S., a defender of Leon Trotsky, the leader of the Socialist Workers Party, and a fighter against imperialism and capitalism until his death in 1974. Thirty-three of his comrades, friends, and relatives review his life -- as a revolutionary, as a friend, a grandfather, and a human being. To be a true fighter, you must be a total person. This book explains an extraordinary example of that.

More than one man, but decades of struggle in this book

... The bulk of this book is the speeches given at the 1974 New York Memorial Meeting for James P. Cannon, a leader of the IWW, the Communist Party, and the founder of the movement that became the Socialist Workers Party, a meeting I was privileged to attend. The speakers span several generations and range from Roger Baldwin who founded the American Civil Liberties Union to Jack Barnes, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. In memorializing Cannon as a thinker, a fighter, an activist, a writer, they speak not just of the importance of one human being, but of the legacy of principled working class politics, the lessons of struggle, and the faith in humanity that Cannon brought from the generations of fighters that preceded him, from the generations he represented. Though it has been 28 years since this meeting, we need the lessons, the principles and the struggles concentrated in these speeches.