> From: Michael Pugliese <debsian at pacbell.net>
> Subject: Ronald Radosh :The Strange Case of Comrade Aptheker,
> Laureate of Stalinism.
Typical Radosh -- sleazy, paranoid, intellectually lazy, like one of Whittaker Chambers' rants, so godawful it's not even worth dignifying with an e-rebuttal.
On a more positive note, I've actually met Herb Aptheker a bunch of times (one of those family connections things). He's an amazing storyteller -- he was a major in WW II, you know, and saw action in France, had all these stories of the war years. He's also one of the truly great historians of the 20th century, who revolutionized the field of African American history, worked with W.E. Dubois, but was purged in the McCarthy years, hounded by the FBI, and wasn't allowed a teaching position for decades. Though he's retired now, doing the occasional lecture, you still feel the tremendous energy there, the moral commitment bubbling beneath the surface, tempered with a rare and extraordinary decency. I have to say I feel genuinely privileged to have met him.
-- Dennis