Cold War Progressives

Covers the women activists who had been in the Progressive Party before its demise in 1955, and what they did politically after that demise. Their broad definition of peace (including social justice, rather than just absence of violence) was no longer politically popular in an era acknowledging the necessity of war against Soviet Communism, and they pursued their various political aims (racial equality, sexual equality, opposition to war, etc.) in different ways.

The author attacks American liberals as naive and disingenuous in their dealings with the world, accusing them of rewriting history to portray themselves as "Cold Warriors" along with conservatives.

In this timely book, American Marxism: How a New Cold War Drives the Progressives' Agenda, author William Reeves takes a close look at the history of Marxism. It examines the evolution of socialism, how it was refined over the course of several decades by neo-Marxists from an economic theory to a social science to a political and cultural path to power. It highlights how today's progressives--who have overtaken Liberals in setting the agenda for the American Left--have used Cultural Marxism to construct a divisive and hypocritical platform that flies in the face of every ideal put forth by our Founding Fathers.Learn more about how the tenants of Marxism have been rebranded as progressivism, and how this tired and failed philosophy has enveloped a far left that is bent on the destruction of America. Discover what this toxic ideology means for the future of our country and how this movement is used by those in the arts, the media and academia to negatively influence what American's can and should believe about our nation. By discussing both the history of Marxism and how it is being applied by the leftist political movement in an effort to win the hearts and minds of Americans, we can better understand the intentions of their agenda and develop counter measures to expose it. William Reeves holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in urban studies and a Master of Arts degree in economics. He has enjoyed a lengthy career as a public policy and government relations consultant, writer and educator and lives with his family in Southern California.

Some of today’s premier experts on Woodrow Wilson contribute to this new collection of essays about the former statesman, portraying him as a complex, even paradoxical president. Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson reveals a person who was at once an international idealist, a structural reformer of the nation’s economy, and a policy maker who was simultaneously accommodating, indifferent, resistant, and hostile to racial and gender reform. Wilson’s progressivism is discussed in chapters by biographer John Milton Cooper and historians Trygve Throntveit and W. Elliot Brownlee. Wilson’s philosophy about race and nation is taken up by Gary Gerstle, and his gender politics discussed by Victoria Bissel Brown. The seeds of Wilsonianism are considered in chapters by Mark T. Gilderhus on Wilson’s Latin American diplomacy and war; Geoffrey R. Stone on Wilson’s suppression of seditious speech; and Lloyd Ambrosius on entry into World War I. Emily S. Rosenberg and Frank Ninkovich explore the impact of Wilson’s internationalism on capitalism and diplomacy; Martin Walker sets out the echoes of Wilson’s themes in the cold war; and Anne-Marie Slaughter suggests how Wilson might view the promotion of liberal democracy today. These essays were originally written for a celebration of Wilson’s 150th birthday sponsored by the official national memorial to Wilson—the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars—in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson House. That daylong symposium examined some of the most important and controversial areas of Wilson’s political life and presidency.

"This book is an institutional history of the Institute for Policy Studies, one of the first Washington, DC, think tanks and a model for other think tanks. The founders intended IPS to be a clearinghouse of information for activists outside DC that would help them do their work"--

In this startling, intensively researched book, bestselling historian Paul Kengor shines light on a deeply troubling aspect of American history: the prominent role of the "dupe." From the Bolshevik Revolution through the Cold War and right up to the present, many progressives have unwittingly aided some of America's most dangerous opponents. Based on never-before-published FBI files, Soviet archives, and other primary sources, Dupes exposes the legions of liberals who have furthered the objectives of America's adversaries. Kengor shows not only how such dupes contributed to history's most destructive ideology—Communism, which claimed at least 100 million lives—but also why they are so relevant to today's politics.

In recognizing the relation between gender, race, and class oppression, American women of the postwar Progressive Party made the claim that peace required not merely the absence of violence, but also the presence of social and political equality. For progressive women, peace was the essential thread that connected the various aspects of their activist agendas. This study maps the routes taken by postwar popular front women activists into peace and freedom movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Historian Jacqueline Castledine tells the story of their decades-long effort to keep their intertwined social and political causes from unraveling and to maintain the connections among peace, feminism, and racial equality. Postwar progressive women and their allies often saw themselves as members of a popular front promoting the rights of workers, women, and African Americans under the banner of peace. However, the Cold War indelibly shaped the contours of their activism. Following the Progressive Party's demise in the 1950s, these activists reentered social and political movements in the early 1960s and met the inescapable reality that their agenda was a casualty of the left-liberal political division of the early Cold War era. Many Americans now viewed peace as a leftist concern associated with Soviet sympathizers and civil rights as the favored cause of liberals. Faced with the dilemma of working to reunite these movements or choosing between them, some progressive women chose to lead such New Left organizations as the Jeannette Rankin Brigade while others became leaders of liberal "second wave" feminist movements. Whether they committed to affiliating with groups that emphasized one issue over others or attempted to found groups with broad popular-front type agendas, Progressive women brought to their later work an understanding of how race, class, and gender intersect in women's organizing. These women's stories demonstrate that the ultimate result of Cold War-era McCarthyism was not the defeat of women's activism, but rather its reconfiguration.