Word: mitfordly
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...else had written it, A Fine Old Conflict could have been a disaster: maudlin, perhaps, or strident. But Mitford brings a unique background to her memoir. The daughter of a pair of eccentric British peers and the sister of two of England's most prominent fascists, Mitford has some hilarious stories about what happened when members of her family met up with members of her party. For instance, the members of the San Francisco cell were just as awed by Jessica's sister as any other American would have been. Fortunately, Mitford finds the contrast between her upperclass background...
There is some serious stuff here, of course; Mitford's involvement in the party was pretty complete, and she has a great deal to say about what the party was doing during the '40s and '50s. The picture she draws is radically different from the Communist conspiracy view: to insiders, the party was much less rigid and totalitarian than the rest of America believed, and Mitford's descriptions--from her slightly off-beat perspective--of party meetings and activities imbues the CPUSA with a human touch...
...memoirs, Mitford appends a mimeographed guide to left usage" she wrote in the late '40's, a takeoff on both her sister Nancy's "Guide to Upper Class Usage" and the C.P.'s stylemxfhetoric. Just as the upper class says "How do you do" instead of "pleased to meet you," the CPUSA would say "The correctness of that policy will be tested in the crucible of struggle" instead of "time will tell whether that plan was O.K. She is loyal to the party's goals, and believes in its integrity, out she misses few chances to poke a little...
During the '50s, the C.P. went underground, forced to retreat in the face of the House Un-American Activities Committee. It is hard, now, to understand the kind of fear that the committee inspired; Mitford describes the terror of the blacklist, and the sense that the FBI followed suspected party members everywhere. It has all been told before, of course, but rarely from such an honest, individual stance. Mitford has a way of engaging--and holding--the reader's sympathy, and the HUAC loses any legitimacy it might have held in the face of her good-humored description...
...completely inactive during those years. Mitford describes her work with the Civil Rights Congress, a group that had a large share of S.P. members, but was one of the most active civil rights groups of the time. It is hard to remember, now, what it felt like to be one of a very few whites working to end discrimination in an era when laws like restrictive housing zones were considered legitimate; it is to the C.P.'s credit that it recognized the exploitation of Blacks long before recognized the exploitation of blacks long before the so-called liberals who spent...