Books: The Life of the Party

THE ROMANCE OF AMERICAN COMMUNISM by Vivian Gornick; Basic Books; 265 pages; $10

In his multivolume history, The Age of Roosevelt, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote of those radicals who compared the New Deal to aspirin and Bolshevism to heroic surgery. He underscored this passion to cut with three lines of Depression verse: " We care not if Thy flag be white or red/ Come, ruthless Savior, messenger of God,/ Lenin or Christ, we follow Thy bright sword."

World War II gave nearly everyone the opportunity to be employed by the savior of his choice....

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