Abstract

Gospels of Anti-Communism

This article presents information on the book "Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism," by Richard Gid Powers. This is a well-researched volume that attempts to give redbaiting its historical weight and its political due. Powers wants to defend a creed he knows most of his academic colleagues either neglect or despise. The imprimatur of the Free Press may insure his book a healthy sale. Powers is a real scholar, however, not a right-wing warrior hurling yet another anecdote-and-graph-laden shell at the fragile ramparts of left-liberalism. His study spans the period from the anti-Bolshevik drive of former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and labor leader Samuel Gompers to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's offensive against an "evil empire" that was about to fall into history's dustbin.