Maurice Isserman
Encyclopedia
Maurice Isserman is James L. Ferguson Professor of History at Hamilton College and an important contributor to the “new history of American communism” which reinterpreted the role of the Communist Party USA
during the Popular Front
period of the 1930s and 1940s. His books have also traced the emergence of the New Left
and the decade of the 1960s. He co-authored a biography of Dorothy Healey and wrote an award-winning biography of American socialist leader Michael Harrington
. Recently he refocused his work on the history of mountaineering in the Himalayas and the United States. He has contributed editorials and book reviews to The New York Times
, The Boston Globe
, Newsday
, the Los Angeles Times
, The Nation
, and The American Alpine Review.
, in 1951, into a family that would have significant influence on his political and intellectual future. His mother, born Flora Huffman, was the daughter and sister of Quaker ministers and graduated from a Quaker college. She was a social worker for the state of Connecticut
. His father, Jacob (Jack) Isserman, was born in Antwerp and came with his family to the US in 1906 at age four, and was later naturalized as a US citizen. He was a machinist who worked at the Pratt and Whitney aircraft factory in East Hartford, Connecticut
.
The Issermans were Jewish; Maurice’s uncle Ferdinand Isserman was a prominent rabbi in St. Louis, Missouri
. Another uncle, lawyer Abraham Isserman, was a founding member of the National Lawyers Guild
, an active member of the American Civil Liberties Union
, and one of the lawyers in the first Smith Act
trial in 1949, during which he was cited for contempt, imprisoned afterwards, and disbarred. He also argued for the plaintiff in Dennis v. United States
. After his father's death in 1963, Maurice became close to his uncle Abraham, who took him to one of his first demonstrations, the 1967 March on the Pentagon.
Isserman’s parents had divorced in 1959, and his mother remarried Walter Snow, a local newspaper reporter, who had been a Communist in the 1930s, and a minor figure on the literary Left (John Reed Club
member, and editor of ‘’The Anvil,’’ a midwestern radical literary magazine). They lived in the small town of Coventry, Connecticut
, and Isserman graduated from Coventry High School in 1968.
in Portland, Oregon
, where he joined the campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society
, and took part in anti-war protests and other New Left activism. In spring 1970, following the U.S. invasion of Cambodia
and the Kent State University
strike, he dropped out of Reed and joined the Portland Revolutionary Youth Movement (PRYM) collective. PRYM members were involved in anti-war activities, in the local underground newspaper The Willamette Bridge
, and in the local food co-op. After a couple years PRYM disbanded, and Isserman returned to Reed to finish his undergraduate degree, writing a senior thesis on the history of radical American writers in the 1930s. He also worked on another underground newspaper, The Portland Scribe. He graduated with a BA in history in 1973, and stayed on another year working evenings as a proofreader for The Oregonian
and days (unpaid) for The Portland Scribe. He also used the year to climb mountains in the Cascades, the start of a continuing interest in mountaineering history and literature.
In August 1974 Isserman began graduate work in history at the University of Rochester
, working closely with Eugene Genovese and Christopher Lasch
. He received his MA in American history in 1976 and his Ph.D. in 1979. His dissertation was a history of American Communism during the Second World War, which became his first published book, Which Side Were You On? in 1982.
in fall 1979, followed by replacement positions at Hobart and William Smith Colleges
, then back to Oberlin. He settled into Smith College
from 1982 to 1988, followed by temporary positions at Mount Holyoke College
and Williams College
.
During this period a debate broke out over the character of American Communism, and Isserman’s book was one of several criticized by Theodore Draper
's two-part attack on the "new history of American Communism" in The New York Review of Books
. As the debate heated up, Isserman criticized books by Draper’s protégé, Harvey Klehr
. Isserman returned to the theme with a chapter on the history of the CPUSA's "destalinization crisis" in his second book on the emergence of the New Left, If I Had a Hammer in 1987, and in his co-authored work with Dorothy Healey, Dorothy Healey Remembers, in 1990 (reissued in paperback as California Red).
Isserman secured a tenure-track position at Hamilton College in 1990, and has remained there since, currently as the James L. Ferguson Professor of History. After the debate over American Communism, Isserman shifted his focus to the history of conflicts between Left and Right during the 1960s in his book with Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s, now in its third edition. He wrote a prize-winning biography of America’s best known socialist of his time, Michael Harrington, leader of the Democratic Socialists of America
. Acknowledging the archival revelations following the fall of the Soviet Union, Isserman has credited Klehr and his coauthors with adding an important chapter on espionage to the history of the Communist Party USA. Isserman has also criticized the new Students for a Democratic Society
for romanticizing the leadership of the Weatherman
faction of the old SDS. In recent years, Isserman has turned to his love of mountaineering to find a fresh focus for his work, authoring Fallen Giants: The History of Himalayan Mountaineering with Stewart Weaver, acclaimed as the "authoritative history" of the subject, and a forthcoming book on mountaineering in the United States. He is also writing a history of Hamilton College for its bicentennial in 2012.
Isserman has participated in an exchange at the University of Sussex
in fall 1985, a Mellon fellowship at Harvard University
, 1992–1993, a Fulbright Distinguished Professorship at the University of Moscow, spring 1997, and an exchange at Pembroke College, Oxford University, fall 2001. He is married and has two children.
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
during the Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
period of the 1930s and 1940s. His books have also traced the emergence of the New Left
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
and the decade of the 1960s. He co-authored a biography of Dorothy Healey and wrote an award-winning biography of American socialist leader Michael Harrington
Michael Harrington
Edward Michael "Mike" Harrington was an American democratic socialist, writer, political activist, professor of political science, radio commentator and founder of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Personal life:...
. Recently he refocused his work on the history of mountaineering in the Himalayas and the United States. He has contributed editorials and book reviews to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
, Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, and The American Alpine Review.
Early life
Isserman was born in Hartford, ConnecticutHartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, in 1951, into a family that would have significant influence on his political and intellectual future. His mother, born Flora Huffman, was the daughter and sister of Quaker ministers and graduated from a Quaker college. She was a social worker for the state of Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. His father, Jacob (Jack) Isserman, was born in Antwerp and came with his family to the US in 1906 at age four, and was later naturalized as a US citizen. He was a machinist who worked at the Pratt and Whitney aircraft factory in East Hartford, Connecticut
East Hartford, Connecticut
East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,252 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
.
The Issermans were Jewish; Maurice’s uncle Ferdinand Isserman was a prominent rabbi in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Another uncle, lawyer Abraham Isserman, was a founding member of the National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild is an advocacy group in the United States "dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . ....
, an active member of the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
, and one of the lawyers in the first Smith Act
Smith Act
The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...
trial in 1949, during which he was cited for contempt, imprisoned afterwards, and disbarred. He also argued for the plaintiff in Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States, , was a United States Supreme Court case involving Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the Communist Party USA, which found that Dennis did not have a right under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to exercise free speech, publication and assembly,...
. After his father's death in 1963, Maurice became close to his uncle Abraham, who took him to one of his first demonstrations, the 1967 March on the Pentagon.
Isserman’s parents had divorced in 1959, and his mother remarried Walter Snow, a local newspaper reporter, who had been a Communist in the 1930s, and a minor figure on the literary Left (John Reed Club
John Reed Club
The John Reed Club was an American, semi-national, Marxist club for writers, artists, and intellectuals, named after the American journalist, activist, and poet, John Reed.-Founding:...
member, and editor of ‘’The Anvil,’’ a midwestern radical literary magazine). They lived in the small town of Coventry, Connecticut
Coventry, Connecticut
Coventry is a town in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 11,504 at the 2000 census. The birthplace of Captain Nathan Hale, Coventry is home to the Nathan Hale Homestead, which is now a museum open to the public....
, and Isserman graduated from Coventry High School in 1968.
Education
In fall 1968 Isserman enrolled in Reed CollegeReed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, where he joined the campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
, and took part in anti-war protests and other New Left activism. In spring 1970, following the U.S. invasion of Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
and the Kent State University
Kent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
strike, he dropped out of Reed and joined the Portland Revolutionary Youth Movement (PRYM) collective. PRYM members were involved in anti-war activities, in the local underground newspaper The Willamette Bridge
Willamette Bridge
Willamette Bridge was a radical underground newspaper published in Portland, Oregon from June 7, 1968 to June 24, 1971. It was a member of the Underground Press Syndicate and the Liberation News Service. Printed in a tabloid format and initially biweekly, starting in 1969 it appeared on a weekly...
, and in the local food co-op. After a couple years PRYM disbanded, and Isserman returned to Reed to finish his undergraduate degree, writing a senior thesis on the history of radical American writers in the 1930s. He also worked on another underground newspaper, The Portland Scribe. He graduated with a BA in history in 1973, and stayed on another year working evenings as a proofreader for The Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
and days (unpaid) for The Portland Scribe. He also used the year to climb mountains in the Cascades, the start of a continuing interest in mountaineering history and literature.
In August 1974 Isserman began graduate work in history at the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
, working closely with Eugene Genovese and Christopher Lasch
Christopher Lasch
Christopher Lasch was a well-known American historian, moralist, and social critic....
. He received his MA in American history in 1976 and his Ph.D. in 1979. His dissertation was a history of American Communism during the Second World War, which became his first published book, Which Side Were You On? in 1982.
Academic career
After completing his dissertation, Isserman began the itinerant career of the young scholar. His first job was a replacement position for a semester at Oberlin CollegeOberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in fall 1979, followed by replacement positions at Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, located in Geneva, New York, are together a liberal arts college offering Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees. In athletics, however, the two schools compete with separate teams, known as the Hobart Statesmen and the...
, then back to Oberlin. He settled into Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
from 1982 to 1988, followed by temporary positions at Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was the first member of the Seven Sisters colleges, and served as a model for some of the others...
and Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
.
During this period a debate broke out over the character of American Communism, and Isserman’s book was one of several criticized by Theodore Draper
Theodore Draper
Theodore H. "Ted" Draper was an American historian and political writer. Draper is best known for the 14 books which he completed during his life, including work regarded as seminal on the formative period of the American Communist Party, the Cuban Revolution, and the Iran-Contra Affair...
's two-part attack on the "new history of American Communism" in The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
. As the debate heated up, Isserman criticized books by Draper’s protégé, Harvey Klehr
Harvey Klehr
Harvey E. Klehr is a professor of politics and history at Emory University; he is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist movement, and on Soviet espionage in America ....
. Isserman returned to the theme with a chapter on the history of the CPUSA's "destalinization crisis" in his second book on the emergence of the New Left, If I Had a Hammer in 1987, and in his co-authored work with Dorothy Healey, Dorothy Healey Remembers, in 1990 (reissued in paperback as California Red).
Isserman secured a tenure-track position at Hamilton College in 1990, and has remained there since, currently as the James L. Ferguson Professor of History. After the debate over American Communism, Isserman shifted his focus to the history of conflicts between Left and Right during the 1960s in his book with Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s, now in its third edition. He wrote a prize-winning biography of America’s best known socialist of his time, Michael Harrington, leader of the Democratic Socialists of America
Democratic Socialists of America
Democratic Socialists of America is a social-democratic organization in the United States and the U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International, an international federation of social-democratic,democratic socialist and labor political parties and organizations.DSA was formed in 1982 by a merger of...
. Acknowledging the archival revelations following the fall of the Soviet Union, Isserman has credited Klehr and his coauthors with adding an important chapter on espionage to the history of the Communist Party USA. Isserman has also criticized the new Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (2006 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society is a United States student organization representing left wing beliefs. It takes its name and inspiration from the original SDS of 1960-1969, then the largest radical student organization in US history...
for romanticizing the leadership of the Weatherman
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
faction of the old SDS. In recent years, Isserman has turned to his love of mountaineering to find a fresh focus for his work, authoring Fallen Giants: The History of Himalayan Mountaineering with Stewart Weaver, acclaimed as the "authoritative history" of the subject, and a forthcoming book on mountaineering in the United States. He is also writing a history of Hamilton College for its bicentennial in 2012.
Isserman has participated in an exchange at the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
in fall 1985, a Mellon fellowship at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, 1992–1993, a Fulbright Distinguished Professorship at the University of Moscow, spring 1997, and an exchange at Pembroke College, Oxford University, fall 2001. He is married and has two children.
Books
- Which Side Were You On? The American Communist Party during the Second World War (1982; University of Illinois Press, 1993). ISBN 978-0252063367
- If I Had a Hammer...The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left (Basic Books, 1987). ISBN 0-465-03197-8
- Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party, with Dorothy Healey (Oxford University Press, 1990). ISBN 0-19-503819-3 Reprinted in paperback as California Red: A Life in the American Communist Party (University of Illinois Press, 1993). ISBN 978-0252062787
- America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s, with Michael Kazin, third ed. (2000; Oxford University Press, 2007). ISBN 0-19-516047-9
- The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington (Public Affairs, 2000). ISBN 1-58648-036-7
- Fallen Giants: The History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, with Stewart Weaver (Yale University Press, 2008). ISBN 978-0300115017