The Romance of American Communism

Written by Vivian Gornick

Narrated by Randye Kaye

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Apr 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781705207406

Vivian Gornick

VIVIAN GORNICK is a writer and critic whose work has received two National Book Critics Circle Award nominations. Her works include the memoirs Fierce Attachments—ranked the best memoir of the last fifty years by the New York Times—The Odd Woman and the City, and Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader, as well as the classic text on writing, The Situation and the Story.

Reviews for The Romance of American Communism

[Lindsay Harrison · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was a very important part of history that you don't always see that much about