San Francisco Reds: Communists in the Bay Area, 1919-1958

The Communist Party (CP) in San Francisco was founded in 1919 and became a force in the 1930s trade union heyday. Robert Cherny's history, "San Francisco Reds," follows over fifty members through their lives and careers, using FBI files, records, interviews, and memoirs to reveal the reasons people joined, policy changes, member turnover, and factionalism. The book also explores the CPs influence on their lives in subsequent years.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 07 May 2024
Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Founded in 1919, the Communist Party (CP) in San Francisco endured an initially ineffectual phase to emerge as a significant force during the flourishing era of trade unions in the 1930s. Robert Cherny employs the narratives of over fifty individual members to chronicle the history of the CP in the city from its inception to 1958.

Cherny relies on FBI files, records from the Russian State Archive for Social and Political History, interviews, and memoirs to trace the lives and careers of male and female party and union leaders, rank-and-file members, and other individuals. His historical account unveils the reasons why people joined the CP while also documenting the frequent policy shifts, high member turnover, and disruptive factionalism that hindered the party's goals and achievements. Furthermore, Cherny follows his subjects through their resignations, expulsions, or other reasons for departure, examining the CP's influence on their lives in the subsequent years.

San Francisco Reds offers a comprehensive and meticulously researched perspective on the personal motivations and activism of an Old Left generation in a West Coast city.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780252087936