Communist Propaganda in Pre-Cold War America

Henry H. Prown is the 2022-25 Temerty Postdoctoral Fellow in Holodomor Studies and an instructor in the History, Classics, and Religion Department at University of Alberta, Canada. He is a specialist on the transnational history of Communism and the relationship between Stalinism and the American media in the mid-20th Century.

• Introduction: The Daily Worker, the CPUSA and the CominternSection I: Famine1. The Great Depression2. Unemployed Councils3. Hunger Marches4. The EPIC Campaign5. HolodomorSection II: Trial 6. Traitors and Spies7. Scottsboro8. Gastonia9. Prelude to Terror10. The Great Purge Section III: War11. Fascist Anti-Fascists 12. Social Fascism 13. The Daily Worker at Work14. Civil War in Spain15. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Conclusion: The Daily Worker’s LegacyBibliography

A sobering account of how a generation of left-wing Americans were deceived. Throughout the great depression of the 1930s the Daily Worker -- official newspaper of the Communist Party of the USA – worked to stir up public opinion in the United States. It drew both funds and editorial direction from the Soviet Union. In this first scholarly history of its output, Henry Prown shows how the paper exaggerated hardship in 1930s America while denying famine in Ukraine; supported show trials in Moscow; concealed mistreatment of American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War and towed Stalin’s line following his shocking pact with Hitler in 1939. This is a valuable volume for anyone interested in the history of propaganda and timely reading at a time when issues of disinformation are once again at the heart of American political life.