Harvey J. Kaye

Examines the important role and influence of Thomas Paine and his political writings on promoting a revolutionary spirit and radical fervor, from the time of America's colonial rebellion and Revolutionary War to the present day.

Thomas Paine and the Promise of America

The eighteen essays and speeches in Take Hold of Our History render a manifesto – a call to remember, redeem, and embrace the American radical story and tradition in favor of cultivating American historical memory and imagination and making America radical once again. For too long we have allowed the right to hijack the past and suppress, efface, lie about, and/or appropriate the essentially radical story of America from the struggles of the Revolution to those of the Age of Roosevelt and the 1960s. And no less tragically, we on the left, apparently haunted by the worst of our national experience, have turned our back on our own story and deferred to the tales of conservatives and reactionaries. Fleeing from the past, we merely compound the tragedies and ironies of American history, for we turn our backs on both the nation’s democratic creed and radical imperative, but also the struggles from the bottom up, the struggles in which working people and others have laid hold of America’s revolutionary promise and succeeded in making the United States freer, more equal and more democratic, at times, radically so. As Bill Moyers put it in 2008: “Here in the first decade of the twenty-first century the story that becomes America’s dominant narrative will shape our collective imagination and our politics for a long time.” The time has come for us to advance that narrative.

Make America Radical Again

Take Hold of Our History

Kaye addresses the much-debated question of the role of intellectuals in the making of history and social change, and insists upon the necessity of continuing to ask classical and fundamental Marxist questions about exploitation, oppression and struggle.

Marxists and the Writing of History

The Education of Desire

Victor Gordon Kiernan

Selected Writings of V.G. Kiernan

History, Classes, and Nation-states

Harvey Kaye

V.G. Kiernan is recognized as one of the most remarkable historians of the twentieth century. Eric Hobsbawm says of Kiernan that his knowledge is "encyclopedic" and Edward Said refers to his writings on imperialism as "milestones." In Imperialism and Its Contradictions, Kiernan critically addresses the origins, consequences and legacies of modern imperialism and colonialism, discussing the imperial experience in its totality. Sensitive to the tragic and ironic character of human history, Kiernan considers and reflects upon the political, economic and cultural dimensions of the imperial experience and how it has shaped the lives and social orders of Europeans and non-Europeans alike. Issues treated in Imperialism and Its Contradictions include the question of the relationship between the rise of capitalism and the making of Europe's overseas empires; the creation of colonial armies and their political uses; the dialectic of imperialism and revolution; the impact of imperialism on European culture; and the social and cultural problems confronting a post-imperial and multicultural Britain. The book also includes Kiernan's discussion of the work of Antonio Gramsci and its implications for the study of imperialism.

Imperialism and its Contradictions

Paul Buhle

Mary Jo Buhle

The American Radical tells the story of American democracy from the late 18th century to the present through the lives of the women and men who have fought to advance it.

The American Radical

Thomas Paine was one of the most remarkable political writers of the modern world and the greatest radical of a radical age. Through writings like Common Sense—and words such as "The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth," "We have it in our power to begin the world over again," and "These are the times that try men's souls"—he not only turned America's colonial rebellion into a revolutionary war but, as Harvey J. Kaye demonstrates, articulated an American identity charged with exceptional purpose and promise.

A History & Biography

Keith McClelland

A discussion of the historical, theoretical, and political problems that have been central to the work of Thompson as an historian, socialist, and peace activist. A key focus is the relationship between determination and agency--the central thesis of The making of the English working class--in particular reference to historical theory and practice. Paper edition (unseen), $15.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Critical Perspectives

E.P. Thompson

Thomas Paine was one of the most remarkable political writers of the modern world and the greatest radical of a radical age. Through writings like Common Sense--and words such as "The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth," "We have it in our power to begin the world over again," and "These are the times that try men's souls"--he not only turned America's colonial rebellion into a revolutionary war but, as Harvey J. Kaye demonstrates, articulated an American identity charged with exceptional purpose and promise.

Revisits Franklin D. Roosevelt's "four freedoms for all Americans," the most significant legacy of America's most progressive generation, and stresses the importance of honoring these freedoms today.

What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great

The Fight for the Four Freedoms

Kim E. Nielsen

The Civil War is a much plumbed area of scholarship, so much so that at times it seems there is no further work to be done in the field. However, the experience of children and youth during that tumultuous time remains a relatively unexplored facet of the conflict.Children and Youth during the Civil War Era seeks a deeper investigation into the historical record by and giving voice and context to their struggles and victories during this critical period in American history. Prominent historians and rising scholars explore issues important to both the Civil War era and to the history of children and youth, including the experience of orphans, drummer boys, and young soldiers on the front lines, and even the impact of the war on the games children played in this collection. Each essay places the history of children and youth in the context of the sectional conflict, while in turn shedding new light on the sectional conflict by viewing it through the lens of children and youth. A much needed, multi-faceted historical account,Children and Youth during the Civil War Era touches on some of the most important historiographical issues with which historians of children and youth and of the Civil War home front have grappled over the last few years.

Harvey J. Kaye

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