Word: mitfords
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...many ways, the anecdote is typical of Mitford's attitude toward her life of leftwing activities, and it is no accident that she chose the phrase for the title of her new book. In A Fine Old Conflict, Mitford treats her long alliance with the Communist Party U S A (CPUSA) with a combination of irreverence and affection, a combination that is remarkably honest and endearing...
WHEN JESSICA MITFORD was a young teenager in London, her governess used to drag her to Hyde Park on Sundays. She would often wander over to where the soap-box orators held forth. One day, she heard someone sing the Internationale, and misunderstood the words. Instead of "the final conflict," Mitford thought the song referred to the class struggle as "the fine old conflict...
...died in action in 1941. Despite that tragedy, Decca tells, with a nice sense of wartime humor, of her duty on the Washington front in the Office of Price Administration. At last it is the moment for the slap in the face of the British Empire-the really big Mitford-sister gesture. After moving to California, marrying a brilliant radical lawyer. Bob Treuhaft, and becoming a naturalized citizen, Decca Mitford joined the Communist Party. What more could a daughter of Lord and Lady Redesdale...
...colored flyers that read: CHICKEN DINNERS LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE. FREE-FLOWING LIQUOR. 20 BEAUTIFUL GIRLS 20. Whether investigating police brutality in Oakland in the '40s or leading a White Women's Delegation to Mississippi to appeal the case of convicted Rapist Willie McGee in 1951, Mitford the Marxist seemed to operate with a touch of what she called "high jinks." Missions might be missions, but why could they not also be "a thrilling adventure," or at least "a welcome breather from diapers and housework...
...this, of course, makes a good story too. It is when Decca tries to explain the Mitford syndrome that everything falls apart. Why did she join the Communist Party and remain a Communist for the better part of two decades? "The Zeitgeist of the thirties" is the best she can do for an answer. She is no more convincing about why she left the party...