Menace of Our Time - by Aaron J Leonard (Hardcover)

About the Book

Menace of Our Time provides a history of the repression against the Communist Party, USA, the longest-lasting, most intensive, domestic repressive campaign ever undertaken against a political organization in the United States. While the magnitude of attacks between the years 1917-1991 varied, there was never a time when U.S. communism was not a high-priority target of the U.S. political, social, and criminal justice apparatus. There has never been anything on this scale, before or since.

Book Synopsis

Beginning at the turn of the century, and ending only with communism's collapse, the US government and major elements in the wider society undertook an unrelenting effort to suppress and criminalize domestic communism. This book tracks those efforts; from the state laws of the twenties that imprisoned the fledgling communist leadership, the efforts by police and local authorities against communists as they fought for unions, racial equality, and the unemployed, the trials and imprisonment of communist leaders mid-century, the extra-legal efforts of the Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) in the sixties, and the ongoing, relentless attention by the FBI afterward. This is a long-overdue book about the most extensive, repressive effort ever undertaken by US authorities against a political organization that, however problematic, was largely operating within the scope of constitutionally mandated freedoms.

Review Quotes

"Leonard's study of unparalleled political repression is both comprehensive and engrossing. For over sixty years, mass surveillance, sustained persecution, and frequent imprisonment were all used to silence American communists and, more broadly, cripple left-wing activism. Essential reading for students of American political history."--Phillip Deery "author of Red Apple: Communism and McCarthyism in Cold War New York"

"The sordid story of the intense and prolonged repression of American communists has never been told better. Leonard's compelling and highly illuminating book is a must-read for everyone interested in US political history."--Geoffrey Roberts "author of Stalin's Library: A Dictator and His Books"

"This comprehensive and sprightly story suggests that the ascendancy of today's right wing is based in no small measure on their obsession of the previous epoch--anticommunism--which savaged progressivism under the guise of fighting Communists. This book is an important contribution."--Gerald Horne "author of Black Liberation/Red Scare: Ben Davis and the Communist Party"

About the Author

AARON J. LEONARD is an author and historian. Among his books are Heavy Radicals: The FBI's Secret War on America's Maoists, The Folk Singers & the Bureau, and Meltdown Expected: Crisis, Disorder and Upheaval at the End of the 1970s (Rutgers University Press, 2024).