I posted months ago calling attention to the groundbreaking interview of Aptheker
in the Journal of American History, and above all his role in pioneering work in
African-American history, as well as his principled courage as an army officer
leading Black troops, as was the situation in his day. Since then I have heard
him speak. Unfortunately, he continues to defend his book whitewashing the Soviet
invasion of Hungary, reflecting that most peculiar Communist view that if the CIA
undertakes to overthrow a government, it was overthrown by the CIA. It never
crosses his mind to ask why the people, and above all, the workingclass, did not
defend what was supposedly their government, against the counter-revolution.
Likewise, he takes pride in having been a prime mover in taking most of the
ragged remnants of the CPUSA out of the hands of Gus Hall when the latter
actually called in the Cleveland police to maintain his control of the convention
there. It never occurs to him to look back thirty years before that event to when
the Khrushchev secret report on Stalin faced the CPUSA with the now-or-never
choice between continuing to echo Moscow's version of events or deciding that it
would arrive at judgments, even on the USSR, independently, as the group with
which I was associated advocated. His prestige was actively thrown to the wrong
choice.
But in the long view he will be remembered for his brave and trailblazing
work on the history of Black America.
William Mandel
radman wrote:
> >Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001
> >From: marvin berlowitz <berlowmj@email.uc.edu>
> >Subject: US Higher Education: Interview with Herbert Aptheker
> >
> > An interview with Aptheker can be found at
> <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/87.1/interview.html>
>
> > It should be incorporated into a standard handbook for the
> >orientation of graduate students. His statements on the role of partisanship
> >in scholarship, his class analysis of the current state of U.S. higher
> >education, & his concluding statement on radical scholarship are especially
> >informative. The autobiographical section is truly inspirational. And, of
> >course, Robin Kelly's questions bring out the best in him.
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