William Z. Foster (1881–1961)

This is America as seen by a migrant worker in the early decades of the twentieth century. It is hard to believe that any one man could survive all this adventure, but Foster speaks with an authority that could come only from first-hand experience. Work camps, strikes, union organizing, life in prison, hoboing in the West, gales at sea off Cape Horn, it is all here, rip-roaring adventure in every chapter. These were the experiences that formed his political opinions. A member of many unions and leftist political parties, he became the presidential candidate of the Communist party in 1924, 1928, and 1932.

Strongly influenced by Vladimir Lenin, he studied working class conditions in Europe and praised the USSR for its advances in living standards and for delivering “a shattering blow to Hitler.” He despised Social Democrats and reformist Socialists in Germany for surrendering to Hitler without a fight. The 1970 edition covers half a century of history, from 1890.… (mehr)

With the exception of the chapters on Russia and the US communist party this book is good and informative. The chapters on Russia sing the praises of Comrade Stalin and they discuss the "engineer wreckers". Foster also talks about the Stalin's rivals (especially Trotsky) and the crimes they committed against the Soviet people. He's referring here to the show trials of the 30s. He also goes on to talk about what an efficient and humane system the gulags were in rehabbing prisoners and building up Russia. The US communist party chapter gives a distorted view of the party's history and certain members of it. With that said most of the book was interesting, particularly the sections on his life as a sailor. Foster worked many jobs in his life and it's enjoyable reading about jobs one has no experience with and horrifying to read about the conditions back then. The parts on hoboing are also worth reading. Parts of this book are reminiscent of You Can't Win by Jack Black. There are a few humorous parts, such as his passing reference to the sexual perversity of shepherds. If you can ignore the last two chapters, this book is worth reading.… (mehr)