Writer and critic Vivian Gornick’s long-unavailable classic
exploring how Left politics gave depth and meaning to American life
“Before I knew
that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working
class.” So begins Vivian Gornick’s exploration of how the world
of socialists, communists, and progressives in the 1940s and 1950s
created a rich, diverse world where ordinary men and women felt their
lives connected to a larger human project.
Now back in print
after its initial publication in 1977 and with a new introduction by
the author, The Romance of American Communism is a landmark
work of new journalism, profiling American Communist Party members
and fellow travelers as they joined the Party, lived within its
orbit, and left in disillusionment and disappointment as Stalin’s
crimes became public.