Print / View Finding Aid as Single Page
Guide to the Max Shachtman Papers
TAM.103
Descriptive Summary
| Creator:
|
Shachtman, Max, 1903-1972. |
| Title: |
Max Shachtman Papers |
| Dates [inclusive]: |
1917-1969 |
| Abstract:
|
Max Shachtman was an author, editor, and a leader (successively) in the communist,
Trotskyist, and socialist movements whose views helped shape the outlook of many progressive
and liberal anti-communist intellectuals and labor leaders. Shachtman was a Polish-Jewish
immigrant interested in socialist reform and the communist movement, but in 1928,
was expelled from the Communist Party after adopting Trotsky's views. In 1929 he became
a leader of the Communist League of America and lead a splinter group, the Workers
Party (later the Independent Socialist League) who had differences with the party
establishment's uncritical view of the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939. During the 1950s,
Shachtman developed the political strategy known as 'realignment,' which held that
U.S. socialists should ally themselves with the leadership of the labor movement and
together work to make the Democratic Party into a social democratic party. During
the 1960s, Shachtman began a history of the Communist International, which remained
unfinished at his death in 1972. The papers include international organizational bulletins,
correspondence, notes, clippings, cartoons, lithographs and manuscripts, documenting
both his political and literary activities. Also included are research notes for his
history of the Communist International, personal correspondence, an unpublished manuscript
of Alfred Rosmer's memoirs of John Reed and a collection of German leaflets tracing
the debate between the Nazis, the Communist Party, the Social Democrats and the German
Trotskyists. Prominent correspondents include Norman Thomas, Natalia Sedova Trotsky,
Erich Fromm, A.J. Muste and Max Eastman.
NOTE: Series I, III, and IV-D, and V, have been microfilmed, and researchers must
use microfilm copy (R-7203) |
| Quantity: |
31.5 linear feet (60 boxes) |
| Mixed materials [Box]:
|
1-58 |
| Call Phrase: |
TAM.103 |
