Kheel Center hosts book talk
Author Randi Storch to discuss the social history of American communism in Chicago
The grassroots of American communism in Chicago will be the subject of a book talk on March 6 sponsored by the Kheel Center, Martin P. Catherwood Library’s special collections unit in the ILR School.
Between 4:30 and 6 p.m. in 217 Ives Hall, Randi Storch, associate professor of history at SUNY Cortland, will discuss her book Red Chicago: American Communism At Its Grassroots, 1928-1935. Her talk will examine the experiences of one group of Chicago’s Reds — foreign-language speaking ethnics.
The book, published by the University of Illinois Press in 2007, is a social history of American Communism set within the context of Chicago's neighborhoods, industries and radical traditions. Uncovering rich new evidence from Moscow's former Party archive, Storch argues that although the American Communist Party was an international organization strongly influenced by the Soviet Union, at the city level it was a more vibrant and flexible organization responsive to local needs and concerns.
For more information about the book talk, please call 255-3183 or e-mail kheel_center@cornell.edu.