Theodore Draper
Encyclopedia
Theodore H. "Ted" Draper (1912 – 2006) 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
. Draper was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and the 1990 recipient of the Herbert Feis
Award for Nonacademically Affiliated Historians from the American Historical Association
.
who emigrated to America from Ukraine
, then part of the Russian empire
. His father, Samuel Dubinsky, was the manager of a shirt factory who died in 1924. His mother, Annie Kornblatt Dubinsky, ran a candy store to make ends meet following her husband's death.
He attended Boys High School
in Brooklyn. His mother insisted they change the family name to the "American-sounding" surname "Draper" when Ted was 20 so that the children could avoid anti-semitism
during pursuit of their careers.
, better known as "City College." It was there that he joined the National Student League
(NSL), a mass organization of the Communist Party USA
targeted at organizing and mobilizing college students. This marked the start of a decade during which Draper chose to remain reliably within the Communist Party's orbit.
Draper later recalled:
Draper noted that his non-party status "may even have helped me, because it could show that one did not have to be a card-carrying Communist to hold a leading position in the NSL." Membership did come at a cost, however, as a decision was made by the Communist Party to distribute NSL members from City College, where the organization was strong, to other campuses where the fledgling organization had no presence. Draper was instructed to enroll at the Brooklyn branch of City College, forerunner of Brooklyn College
, a decision which he later remembered as "one of the saddest days of my life."
Draper graduated from Brooklyn College in 1933, by which time its National Student League organization "was so large and influential that it could virtually close down the school on May Day
." Upon graduation he enrolled in graduate school
at Columbia University
in New York City
, which attended for two years.
While attending a social function in 1935, Draper was approached by the foreign editor of the Communist Party's newspaper, The Daily Worker
. The editor asked Ted whether he would be willing to put his prospective academic career aside and to instead come to work at the paper as his assistant. After giving the matter careful consideration, Draper decided to accept the offer and went to work at the Daily Worker, where he remained for two years as assistant foreign editor, writing for publication under the name Theodore Repard.
In the summer of 1936 Draper was tapped to go to Moscow
as the Daily Worker's correspondent there. He was ready to travel to Russia when he was suddenly told he couldn't leave because the party had learned that his brother, Hal Draper
, was a Trotskyist
, causing Soviet authorities to regard Ted as a security risk. The position of Moscow correspondent was subsequently offered to another Daily Worker journalist.
In 1937, Draper moved to the Communist Party's literary-artistic weekly, The New Masses, where he took a position as foreign editor and wrote for publication under his real name. The magazine sent Draper to Europe in 1938 to cover the tense geopolitical situation there. Draper spent time in Paris
, in Czechoslovakia
covering the crisis which led to the "Munich Agreement
" between Adolf Hitler
and Neville Chamberlain
, and in Spain
covering the last days of the Spanish Civil War
.
Upon returning from Europe in 1939, Draper was approached by a new fellow-traveling publishing housed called Modern Age Publishers with an offer for Ted to write a book on the European political situation. Draper used the book advance as an excuse to quit The New Masses and he headed for Paris to conduct further research. Draper returned to the United States in November 1939, but the changing political situation — and the changing political line of the Communist Party in response to this — ultimately scrapped Draper's book project despite multiple re-writes.
Throughout 1939 and 1940 Draper continued to periodically write for the New Masses on various topics at the request of the editors. With France falling to Nazi Germany
in the summer of 1940, Draper was urgently requested to contribute an article for publication on the significance of the event. An article entitled "New Moment in France" was produced and published in the July 9, 1940 issue, in which Draper argued that the French collapse had altered the balance of power in Europe and hinted that the Soviet Union
would be a likely next target of the Nazis in their pursuit of "an ever widening circle of expansion for easy booty."
Draper remembered:
Draper refused to write any more articles for the New Masses after that date, limiting himself to a few book reviews so as to avoid a total severing of connections with the Communist movement. He also spent a six month stint as correspondent for the Soviet news agency TASS
, before joining the staff of a short-lived French language weekly newspaper based in New York City. Despite being invited back into the fold after the June 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union
validated his earlier prognostications, Draper felt this impossible and instead worked at a series of temporary jobs to make ends meet.
In 1943, Draper was inducted into the U.S. Army
and was thereby "saved from thinking any more about American Communism, at least for the next three years." Draper was put to work in the Historical Section of the 84th Infantry Division, ultimately writing the Division's official history of its activities during the Battle of the Ardennes
in World War II
. In 1944 Draper also saw the publication at last of a book on French affairs, when mainstream publisher The Viking Press
released a book by Draper called The Six Weeks' War. Draper's transition from a political journalist to a historian had begun.
magazine, a new publication of the American Jewish Committee
, among other publications. In 1950 he began to write for a new bi-weekly news magazine called The Reporter
, founded by Max Ascoli. Such writing tasks did not constitute full-time work, however, leaving time for Draper to engage in other literary pursuits.
With the growth of McCarthyism
and the Second Red Scare, the subject of communism in America began to loom large in the public consciousness. Draper began to think of writing a "traditional" history of the American Communist Party based upon documentary sources and meeting scholarly standards and slowly began work on the project in his spare time. He was set free to work on the task full-time in 1952 by a grant from the newly established Fund for the Republic, set up as an autonomous organization by the Ford Foundation
. Under the direction of political scientist Clinton Rossiter
of Cornell University
, the Fund for the Republic determined to publish a full-scale history of American communism. David A. Shannon of the University of Wisconsin was tapped to write the history of the CPUSA during the post-war period, while Draper was chosen to produce a monograph on the party's early years.
Rossiter allowed Draper two years to complete the entire project, the history of American communism from its origins in 1919 until the sacking of party leader Earl Browder
at the end of World War II. Draper set to work, mustering sources and conducting interviews with living participants of the formative period of the American Communist Party. One of those whom he conducted an extensive correspondence was James P. "Jim" Cannon
, a midwesterner who was sacked from the organization in 1928 for supporting Leon Trotsky
and the Russian "Left Opposition." Draper noted that Cannon's letters soon became "more formal, better organized, each a little gem of its kind." These letters of Jim Cannon to Ted Draper were ultimately published in book form as The First Ten Years of American Communism in 1962.
In the meantime, Draper finished his book for Rossiter and the Fund for the Republic:
Draper turned in the manuscript to Cinton Rossiter, who was irate about the truncation of the narrative but was in great need of a publication to show that the Fund for the Republic project was alive and functioning. The manuscript thus found print without revision as The Roots of American Communism in 1957 and Rossiter set Draper back to work for two more years to complete the rest of the assigned time period.
To his own dismay, Draper repeated the stunt, terminating the second volume with the 1929 expulsion of party leader Jay Lovestone
and his co-thinkers. Again Clinton Rossiter protested and published, with the Viking Press releasing the volume as American Communism and Soviet Russia in 1960.
A third volume was planned, for which Draper began assembling research material. Unfortunately, by this time the Fund for the Republic had run out of money and the story of the American Communist Party during the decade of the 1930s was left to be told by another writer at a later date. After several tries and failures to complete the task, Draper turned his research material over to a young scholar whose work he appreciated, Harvey Klehr
of Emory University
. Klehr's book, which made use of Draper's research material but to which Draper did not himself personally contribute, was ultimately published in 1984.
With his scholarly funding dried up and his interests shifting, Draper next moved to the hot-button topic of the Cuban Revolution
as a focus for his scholarship. A series of articles, books, and pamphlets ensued, marked by the 1962 tome Castro's Revolution: Myths and Realities, published by Frederick A. Praeger publishers.
Draper's work as a historian of the Cuban Revolution brought him to the attention of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace
, an anti-communist think tank
located at Stanford University
. Draper accepted a Hoover Institution fellowship and remained there until 1968, at which time he departed, ill at ease with the growing conservatism of the institution. Draper moved across country to accept a similar post at the Institute for Advanced Study
located at Princeton University
, where he focused his scholarship on the question of race relations.
Draper was a long-time contributor first to the magazine Commentary
and later to the New York Review of Books.
Some of Draper's later works include A Very Thin Line, a history of the Iran-Contra Affair
, and A Struggle for Power, a monograph on the economic and political circumstances behind the American Revolution
of 1776.
. He was 93 years old at the time of his death.
Draper's papers are housed in two locations. Materials relating to his two published books on American Communism and the Cuban Revolution are held by the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California
. An additional 63 boxes of material collected for his unpublished third book on American Communism, plus over 120 reels of microfilm and other research materials, are to be found at the Emory University
Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Atlanta, Georgia
.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
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
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....
, the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
, and the Iran-Contra Affair
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...
. Draper was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
and the 1990 recipient of the Herbert Feis
Herbert Feis
Herbert Feis was an American Author and former Economic Advisor for International Affairs to the Department of State in the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations....
Award for Nonacademically Affiliated Historians from the American Historical Association
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
.
Early years
Theodore Draper was born Theodore Dubinsky on September 11, 1912, one of four children. Theodore's parents were ethnic JewsJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
who emigrated to America from Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, then part of the Russian empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. His father, Samuel Dubinsky, was the manager of a shirt factory who died in 1924. His mother, Annie Kornblatt Dubinsky, ran a candy store to make ends meet following her husband's death.
He attended Boys High School
Boys and Girls High School
Boys and Girls High School, the oldest public high school in Brooklyn, is a comprehensive high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York...
in Brooklyn. His mother insisted they change the family name to the "American-sounding" surname "Draper" when Ted was 20 so that the children could avoid anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
during pursuit of their careers.
Political career
In 1930, Draper enrolled at the College of the City of New YorkCollege of the City of New York
The College of the City of New York is the former name of New York University's undergraduate college when the university was named "University of the City of New York"....
, better known as "City College." It was there that he joined the National Student League
National Student League
The National Student League was a Communist led organization of college and high school students in the United States.-Origins:The organizations founding came about as a result of a case of censorship on the campus of the City College of New York in 1931. The Social Problems Club had begun...
(NSL), a mass organization of the Communist Party USA
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....
targeted at organizing and mobilizing college students. This marked the start of a decade during which Draper chose to remain reliably within the Communist Party's orbit.
Draper later recalled:
"My initiation came in the National Student League, which I joined in 1930... Most of its leaders were members of the Young Communist LeagueYoung Communist LeagueThe Young Communist League was or is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX was generally taken by all sections of the Communist Youth International.Examples of YCLs:...
, but I was not. I preferred being a 'fellow-traveler,' which was how I came to be around it. I was enough of a true believer to be convinced that whatever its faults or shortcomings, only the CommunistCommunismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
movement was capable of making the 'Revolution'; a revolutionary, therefore, had to be close to it. Nevertheless, I was unwilling to give up a measure of freedom or absence of discipline, such as I could enjoy as a fellow-traveler."
Draper noted that his non-party status "may even have helped me, because it could show that one did not have to be a card-carrying Communist to hold a leading position in the NSL." Membership did come at a cost, however, as a decision was made by the Communist Party to distribute NSL members from City College, where the organization was strong, to other campuses where the fledgling organization had no presence. Draper was instructed to enroll at the Brooklyn branch of City College, forerunner of Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, a decision which he later remembered as "one of the saddest days of my life."
Draper graduated from Brooklyn College in 1933, by which time its National Student League organization "was so large and influential that it could virtually close down the school on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
." Upon graduation he enrolled in graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, which attended for two years.
While attending a social function in 1935, Draper was approached by the foreign editor of the Communist Party's newspaper, The Daily Worker
Daily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
. The editor asked Ted whether he would be willing to put his prospective academic career aside and to instead come to work at the paper as his assistant. After giving the matter careful consideration, Draper decided to accept the offer and went to work at the Daily Worker, where he remained for two years as assistant foreign editor, writing for publication under the name Theodore Repard.
In the summer of 1936 Draper was tapped to go to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
as the Daily Worker's correspondent there. He was ready to travel to Russia when he was suddenly told he couldn't leave because the party had learned that his brother, Hal Draper
Hal Draper
Hal Draper was an American socialist activist and author who played a significant role in the Berkeley, California, Free Speech Movement and is perhaps best known for his extensive scholarship on the history and meaning of the thought of Karl Marx.Draper was a lifelong advocate of what he called...
, was a Trotskyist
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
, causing Soviet authorities to regard Ted as a security risk. The position of Moscow correspondent was subsequently offered to another Daily Worker journalist.
In 1937, Draper moved to the Communist Party's literary-artistic weekly, The New Masses, where he took a position as foreign editor and wrote for publication under his real name. The magazine sent Draper to Europe in 1938 to cover the tense geopolitical situation there. Draper spent time in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
covering the crisis which led to the "Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
" between Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
, and in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
covering the last days of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
.
Upon returning from Europe in 1939, Draper was approached by a new fellow-traveling publishing housed called Modern Age Publishers with an offer for Ted to write a book on the European political situation. Draper used the book advance as an excuse to quit The New Masses and he headed for Paris to conduct further research. Draper returned to the United States in November 1939, but the changing political situation — and the changing political line of the Communist Party in response to this — ultimately scrapped Draper's book project despite multiple re-writes.
Throughout 1939 and 1940 Draper continued to periodically write for the New Masses on various topics at the request of the editors. With France falling to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in the summer of 1940, Draper was urgently requested to contribute an article for publication on the significance of the event. An article entitled "New Moment in France" was produced and published in the July 9, 1940 issue, in which Draper argued that the French collapse had altered the balance of power in Europe and hinted that the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
would be a likely next target of the Nazis in their pursuit of "an ever widening circle of expansion for easy booty."
Draper remembered:
"The article was delivered just before the deadline and must have gone in without much editorial deliberation. With everyone stunned by the French debacle, and no party line on it immediately established, my article had squeaked through. I was asked to write another article on the same subject for the following issue and attempted to say the same thing in even stronger form. But this time the party line caught up with me as a result of word from Moscow. The Soviet press let it be known that nothing had changed, there were no new problems or new conditions, no 'new moment in Europe.'... My second article was never published. It was the first time that any article of mine had been rejected. I was suddenly faced with the kind of personal political crisis that so many had confronted before and were to confront afterwards."
Draper refused to write any more articles for the New Masses after that date, limiting himself to a few book reviews so as to avoid a total severing of connections with the Communist movement. He also spent a six month stint as correspondent for the Soviet news agency TASS
TASS
TASS or Tass may refer to:* Telluride Association Sophomore Seminar, a six-week educational opportunity for minority high school students* Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, TASS is the transliteration of the Russian abbreviation for it...
, before joining the staff of a short-lived French language weekly newspaper based in New York City. Despite being invited back into the fold after the June 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
validated his earlier prognostications, Draper felt this impossible and instead worked at a series of temporary jobs to make ends meet.
In 1943, Draper was inducted into the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and was thereby "saved from thinking any more about American Communism, at least for the next three years." Draper was put to work in the Historical Section of the 84th Infantry Division, ultimately writing the Division's official history of its activities during the Battle of the Ardennes
Battle of the Ardennes
The Battle of the Ardennes was one of the opening battles of World War I. It took place from August 21–23, 1914, part of the Battle of the Frontiers.-Background:...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1944 Draper also saw the publication at last of a book on French affairs, when mainstream publisher The Viking Press
Viking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...
released a book by Draper called The Six Weeks' War. Draper's transition from a political journalist to a historian had begun.
Historian
Following World War II, Draper worked as a freelance journalist, writing extensively for CommentaryCommentary (magazine)
Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
magazine, a new publication of the American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...
, among other publications. In 1950 he began to write for a new bi-weekly news magazine called The Reporter
The Reporter (magazine)
The Reporter was an American biweekly news magazine published in New York from 1949 through 1968.In its heyday it was viewed as a prestigious intellectual forum...
, founded by Max Ascoli. Such writing tasks did not constitute full-time work, however, leaving time for Draper to engage in other literary pursuits.
With the growth of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
and the Second Red Scare, the subject of communism in America began to loom large in the public consciousness. Draper began to think of writing a "traditional" history of the American Communist Party based upon documentary sources and meeting scholarly standards and slowly began work on the project in his spare time. He was set free to work on the task full-time in 1952 by a grant from the newly established Fund for the Republic, set up as an autonomous organization by the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
. Under the direction of political scientist Clinton Rossiter
Clinton Rossiter
Clinton Rossiter was a historian and political scientist who taught at Cornell University from 1946 until his suicide in 1970. He wrote The American Presidency along with 20 other books on American institutions, the United States Constitution, and history...
of Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, the Fund for the Republic determined to publish a full-scale history of American communism. David A. Shannon of the University of Wisconsin was tapped to write the history of the CPUSA during the post-war period, while Draper was chosen to produce a monograph on the party's early years.
Rossiter allowed Draper two years to complete the entire project, the history of American communism from its origins in 1919 until the sacking of party leader Earl Browder
Earl Browder
Earl Russell Browder was an American communist and General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1934 to 1945. He was expelled from the party in 1946.- Early years :...
at the end of World War II. Draper set to work, mustering sources and conducting interviews with living participants of the formative period of the American Communist Party. One of those whom he conducted an extensive correspondence was James P. "Jim" Cannon
James P. Cannon
James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...
, a midwesterner who was sacked from the organization in 1928 for supporting Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
and the Russian "Left Opposition." Draper noted that Cannon's letters soon became "more formal, better organized, each a little gem of its kind." These letters of Jim Cannon to Ted Draper were ultimately published in book form as The First Ten Years of American Communism in 1962.
In the meantime, Draper finished his book for Rossiter and the Fund for the Republic:
"Two years later, I finished a book, but not the book.... I woke up one day to realize that I had written a book which ended in 1923, a turning-point in the story.... I was faced with a problem; 1923 was too far from 1945 to make up a plausible alibi. I could not expect anyone else to know what the significance of 1923 was and why it had become my stopping-point. Yet, somehow, without intending it, I had produced a book on the formative period of the formative period; it had a beginning, a middle, and an end; it was a book I knew, if the wrong one."
Draper turned in the manuscript to Cinton Rossiter, who was irate about the truncation of the narrative but was in great need of a publication to show that the Fund for the Republic project was alive and functioning. The manuscript thus found print without revision as The Roots of American Communism in 1957 and Rossiter set Draper back to work for two more years to complete the rest of the assigned time period.
To his own dismay, Draper repeated the stunt, terminating the second volume with the 1929 expulsion of party leader Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
and his co-thinkers. Again Clinton Rossiter protested and published, with the Viking Press releasing the volume as American Communism and Soviet Russia in 1960.
A third volume was planned, for which Draper began assembling research material. Unfortunately, by this time the Fund for the Republic had run out of money and the story of the American Communist Party during the decade of the 1930s was left to be told by another writer at a later date. After several tries and failures to complete the task, Draper turned his research material over to a young scholar whose work he appreciated, 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 ....
of Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
. Klehr's book, which made use of Draper's research material but to which Draper did not himself personally contribute, was ultimately published in 1984.
With his scholarly funding dried up and his interests shifting, Draper next moved to the hot-button topic of the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
as a focus for his scholarship. A series of articles, books, and pamphlets ensued, marked by the 1962 tome Castro's Revolution: Myths and Realities, published by Frederick A. Praeger publishers.
Draper's work as a historian of the Cuban Revolution brought him to the attention of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
, an anti-communist think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
located at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. Draper accepted a Hoover Institution fellowship and remained there until 1968, at which time he departed, ill at ease with the growing conservatism of the institution. Draper moved across country to accept a similar post at the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
located at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, where he focused his scholarship on the question of race relations.
Draper was a long-time contributor first to the magazine Commentary
Commentary (magazine)
Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
and later to the New York Review of Books.
Some of Draper's later works include A Very Thin Line, a history of the Iran-Contra Affair
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...
, and A Struggle for Power, a monograph on the economic and political circumstances behind the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
of 1776.
Death and legacy
Theodore Draper died on February 21, 2006 at his home in Princeton, New JerseyPrinceton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
. He was 93 years old at the time of his death.
Draper's papers are housed in two locations. Materials relating to his two published books on American Communism and the Cuban Revolution are held by the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
. An additional 63 boxes of material collected for his unpublished third book on American Communism, plus over 120 reels of microfilm and other research materials, are to be found at the Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
.
Works
- Spain in Revolt. As Theodore Repard, with Harry Gannes. New York: Alfred A. KnopfAlfred A. KnopfAlfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
, 1936. - The Six Weeks' War: France, May 10 - June 25, 1940. New York: Viking Press, 1944.
- The 84th Infantry Division in the Battle of the Ardennes, December 1944-January 1945, Liege, Belgium: Historical Section, 84th Infantry Division, April 1945.
- The Roots of American Communism. New York: Viking Press, 1957.
- American Communism and Soviet Russia: The Formative Period. New York: Viking Press, 1960.
- Ordeal of the UN: Khrushchev, Hammarskjöld, and the Congo Crisis. New York, The New LeaderThe New LeaderThe New Leader was a political and cultural magazine begun in 1924 by a group of figures associated with the Socialist Party of America, including Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas, and published in New York by the American Labor Conference on International Affairs. Its orientation is liberal and...
, 1960. - Castro's Cuba: A Revolution Betrayed? New York: The New Leader, 1961.
- Cuba and United States Policy. New York: The New Leader, 1961.
- Castro's Revolution: Myths and Realities. New York, Praeger, 1962.
- Castro's Communism. London, EncounterEncounter (magazine)Encounter was a literary magazine, founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and early neoconservative author Irving Kristol. The magazine ceased publication in 1991...
, 1962. - Five Years of Castro's Cuba. New York: American Jewish Committee, 1964.
- The Roots of the Dominican Crisis. New York, League for Industrial DemocracyLeague for Industrial DemocracyThe League for Industrial Democracy , from 1960-1965 known as the Students for a Democratic Society , was founded in 1905 by a group of notable socialists including Harry W. Laidler, Jack London, Norman Thomas, Upton Sinclair, and J.G. Phelps Stokes...
, 1965. - Castroism, Theory and Practice. New York, Praeger, 1965.
- Abuse of Power. New York: Viking Press, 1967.
- Israel and World Politics: Roots of the Third Arab-Israeli War. New York, Viking Press, 1968.
- The Dominican Revolt: A Case Study in American Policy. New York, Commentary, 1968.
- The Rediscovery of Black Nationalism. New York: Viking Press, 1970.
- The Dominican Intervention Reconsidered. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971.
- The United States and Israel: Tilt in the Middle East? New York: American Jewish Committee, 1975.
- On Nuclear War: An Exchange with the Secretary of Defense: Caspar Weinberger vs. Theodore Draper. Boston: Council for a Livable WorldCouncil for a Livable WorldCouncil for a Livable World is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, advocacy organization dedicated to eliminating the U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons...
Education Fund. - The Atlantic Alliance and its Critics. With Robert W. TuckerRobert W. TuckerRobert Warren Tucker, an American realist, is a writer and teacher who is Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at the Johns Hopkins University, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences....
and Linda Wrigley. New York: Praeger, 1983. - Present History: On Nuclear War, Detente and Other Controversies. New York: Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, 1983. - A Present of Things Past: Selected Essays. New York: Hill and WangHill and WangHill & Wang is an American book publishing company focused on American history, world history, and politics. It is a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux....
, 1990. - A Very Thin Line: The Iran-Contra Affairs. New York: Hill and Wang, 1991.
- A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution. New York: Times BooksTimes BooksTimes Books is a publishing imprint owned by The New York Times Company and licensed to Henry Holt and Company....
, 1996.
External links
- Peter Daniels, "Obituary: Theodore Draper—American Historian and Social Critic," World Socialist Web Site, International Committee of the Fourth International, March 3, 2006.
- Xiuzhi Zhou, "Preliminary Inventory to the Theodore Draper Papers, 1912-1966," Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, 1998.
- "Theodore Draper research files, 1919-1970," Emory University Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Atlanta, Georgia.
See also
- Hal DraperHal DraperHal Draper was an American socialist activist and author who played a significant role in the Berkeley, California, Free Speech Movement and is perhaps best known for his extensive scholarship on the history and meaning of the thought of Karl Marx.Draper was a lifelong advocate of what he called...