The 'American Exceptionalism' of Jay Lovestone and His Comrades, 1929–1940

Download or read book The 'American Exceptionalism' of Jay Lovestone and His Comrades, 1929–1940 written by Paul Le Blanc and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first 'American Exceptionalists' belonged to a left-wing current led by Jay Lovestone. Briefly in control of, then dramatically expelled from, the US Communist Party, they maintained an independent existence on the US Left from 1929 to 1940. Some became prominent in the labour and civil rights movements, while Will Herberg became a prominent Jewish theologian and an editor of the conservative National Review, and Bertram Wolfe worked as an anti-Communist ideologist with the US State Department. Lovestone himself collaborated with the CIA to help shape the Cold War foreign policy of the AFL-CIO. Yet earlier documents and articles from the Lovestone group provide rich information and remarkable insights on twentieth-century realities and radicalism.