The Romance of American Communism

Writer and critic Vivian Gornick’s long-unavailable classic exploring how Left politics gave depth and meaning to American life

“Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class.”

So begins Vivian Gornick’s exploration of how the world of socialists, communists, and progressives in the 1940s and 1950s created a rich, diverse world where ordinary men and women felt their lives connected to a larger human project.

Now back in print after its initial pub...