American Gandhi
POLITICS AND CULTURE IN MODERN AMERICA
Series Editors:
Margot Canaday, Glenda Gilmore, Michael Kazin, Stephen Pitti, and Thomas J. Sugrue
Volumes in the series narrate and analyze political and social change in the broadest dimensions from 1865 to the present, including ideas about the ways people have sought and wielded power in the public sphere and the language and institutions of politics at all levels—local, national, and transnational. The series is motivated by a desire to reverse the fragmentation of modern U.S. history and to encourage synthetic perspectives on social movements and the state, on gender, race, and labor, and on intellectual history and popular culture.
AMERICAN GANDHI
A. J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the Twentieth Century
Leilah Danielson
PENN
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
HILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2014 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Danielson, Leilah.
American Gandhi : A. J. Muste and the history of radicalism in the twentieth century / Leilah Danielson.—1st ed.
p. cm.— (Politics and culture in modern America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8122-4639-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Pacifists—United States—Biography. 2. Quakers—United States—Biography. 3. Radicalism—United States—History—20th century. 4. Muste, A. J. (Abraham John), 1885–1967. I. Title. II. Series: Politics and culture in modern America.
JZ5540.2.M8D36 2014
320.53092—dc23
| [B] | 2014007120 |
For Eric and our children, Adin and Mira
CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Calvinism, Class, and the Making of a Modern Radical
Chapter 2. Spirituality and Modernity
Chapter 3. Pragmatism and ‘‘Transcendent Vision’’
Chapter 4. Muste, Workers’ Education, and Labor’s Culture War in the 1920s
Chapter 6. Americanizing Marx and Lenin
Chapter 8. Muste and the Origins of Nonviolence in the United States
Chapter 9. Conscience Against the Wartime State and the Bomb
Chapter 10. Speaking Truth to Power
Chapter 11. Muste and the Search for a ‘‘Third Way’’
Chapter 12. The ‘‘American Gandhi’’ and Vietnam
ABBREVIATIONS
| ACLU | American Civil Liberties Union |
| ACW | Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America |
| AFFFHW | American Federation of Full-Fashioned Hosiery Workers |
| AFL | American Federation of Labor |
| AFSC | American Friends Service Committee |
| AFT | American Federation of Teachers |
| ATWA | Amalgamated Textile Workers of America |
| AWP | American Workers Party |
| CALCAV | Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam |
| CIO | Congress of Industrial Organizations |
| CLA | Communist League of America |
| CNVA | Committee for Nonviolent Action |
| COFO | Council of Federated Organizations |
| CORE | Congress of Racial Equality |
| CP | Communist Party |
| CPLA | Conference for Progressive Labor Action |
| CPM | Church Peace Mission |
| CPS | Civilian Public Service |
| CRC |
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