Communist Histories
The contemporary world cannot be fully understood without the struggles of the Communists over the past century. Rooted in South Asia, Communist Histories has a global sweep, with essays examining Communist praxis from Bengal to Maharashtra, from Cuba to China. This volume – the first in a series – looks closely at the Communist international with an emphasis on how the core idea of internationalism impacted the campaigns of Communists. Deeply researched and richly written, these essays are a counterpoint to the erasure of Communist movements in bourgeois historiography.
Contents:–
VIJAY PRASHAD Introduction: Communist Histories
SUCHETANA CHATTOPADHYAY Being 'Naren Bhattacharji'
FREDRIK PETERSSON The 'Colonial Conference' and Dilemma of the Comintern's Colonial Work, 1928-29
MARGARET STEVENS Cuba and the Red International, 1934
ELISABETH ARMSTRONG Indian Peasant Women's Activism in a Hot Cold War
LIN CHUN The Lost International in the Transformation of Chinese Socialism
ARCHANA PRASAD The Warli Movement and its Living Histories
Reviews
“Delving into buried archives, and ranging from Comintern documents to the yet unfinished dialectic of revolution and counterrevolution in China, and from Cuba and Mexico and Black America to little corners of the Bombay and Calcutta of yesteryears, Communist Histories instructs and inspires. Social History, History from Below, of a different kind. Communist archeologies as it were. Audacious beginning. May there be more.”
Prof. Aijaz Ahmad, author of In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures
