Being Red

by Howard Fast

This edition brings the story of 20th-century Southern politics up to the present day and the virtual triumph of Southern Republicanism. It considers the changes in party politics, leadership, civil rights and black participation in Southern politics.

Genres: History, Politics, Biography, Nonfiction

386 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1990

About the author

Howard Fast was one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century. He was a bestselling author of more than eighty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. The son of immigrants, Fast grew up in New York City and published his first novel upon finishing high school in 1933. In 1950, his refusal to provide the United States Congress with a list of possible Communist associates earned him a three-month prison sentence. During his incarceration, Fast wrote one of his best-known novels, Spartacus (1951). Throughout his long career, Fast matched his commitment to championing social justice in his writing with a deft, lively storytelling style.

Pseudonyms: Walter Ericson, E.V. Cunningham

Reviews

[Susan Emmet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very important memoir - I'd forgotten how important Howard Fast was as a writer, pacifist and compromised, fierce, devoted, troubled, and long-lived man.
Used to teach "April Morning" and kids loved it. So many other of Fast's books were part of my upbringing. I think my Jewish grandfather, an immigrant who achieved great wealth working for Sears and Roebuck, was a member of the Communist Party in America.
I was raised to question all claims of those righteous ones in religion or business or politics. I was invested in reading Fast's memoir.
His trip all over was amazing and horrible and humble.
The trip from poverty at birth, growth and reading and self-education and grasping for all he could, through working all kinds of jobs and his initiation into leftist commitment, as well as his thoughts/memories/people met/struggles- are simply magnificent.
Fed well into reading Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here." Way too well.

[Bruce Nordstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Howard Fast has been one of my favorite writers for a long time now, but I don't remember how I got started reading this one. And I found it was almost impossible to put down as soon as I started reading it. I think this can be best called Fast's auto-biography, but in a limited scale. Not the complete story of his life, but mostly on his experiences in WWII, and a member of the American Communist party in the 1950's.

I found his insights and reason for being a Communist fascinating, and insightful. I was too young to understand the Cuban missile crisis, Cold War, and all the brinkmanship that was so much a part of American life between the 50's and the 70's. This has forced me to rethink the American involvement in the 'war' on Communism.

Totally amazing book from Howard Fast, and I swore I was going to buy a copy at Amazon.con, until I found a copy at Paperbackswap. Waiting for it now anxiously.

[Judy Mann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was such a massive disappointment. It was boring. It was dull. And worst of all it was stupidly self serving. Howard Fast wrote it for Howard Fast. Let's get this straight. I am originally from Canada- and in Canada it is legal to be a Communist. It always has been . I believe that in many federal elections there is a faction of the communist party running in Canada. That's right. Right there on the ballot- you can vote for a Commie. I myself studied Marxism for 2 years with 2 different study groups in Canada. That said I found this book to be an ersatz description of the Communist movement. I found Howard Fast to be one big ersatz balloon of nothing.What I am trying to say is that Howard Fast was loaded- rich -during the time he was writing this book. Now does it occur to him that he has aligned himself with a party whose very basic belief is to share the wealth- so that no human being should ever go hungry? No. Share his wealth?? Never. It's just too damn much fun being rich.And how does he get rich ? by writing books about being a Commie.( I actually became very suspicious of his rosy vision of the universe after I read The Pledge-)Back to this book; Howard Fast fights bitterly to go to the front during the second world war and ..? He wins and ? and he ends up in Calcutta??
Hitler was spraying blood and guts all over the UK and Europe and Howard Fast ends up in Calcutta patting himself on the back because he went "overseas" during the war.
Feeling most heroic. And his money keeps pouring in. And the masses all around him are still starving. And Howard Fast keeps calling himself a Communist. And the masses all around him are still starving.
I have to add this. Reading this book about " Being Red" is like listening to the communist anthem-"The Internationale" as elevator music. That's right . He has reduced the communist anthem to Musak.
Back to the book.
In America -after his return from overseas-
He ends up in a medium security prison - sent there by McCarthy and his henchmen. So now he is a vision of pure heroism because he actually went to prison for his beliefs. HE DID IT.A prisoner for his beliefs. BUT let us be clear here; It's easy to believe. Beliefs come very cheap. It's just hard to give up a plug nickel for these beliefs. Now he doesn't have to. He's IN PRISON>A real martyr. yeah right . This medium security prison is a hotel for the rich and famous. That's all it is. And in the end? In the end - GOD BLESS AMERICA. Where you can be a Commie and never have to give a penny to the ones who need it. To the ones who are really starving.
Such is the work of Howard Fast.
Ersatz phony drek.
Irritating, boring and just plain stupid.
I'm done. JM

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s no reason to read this book unless, like me, you’re looking for traces of your childhood. I never read a novel by Howard Fast but I remember well the places his books occupied on my parents’ bookshelves. There are familiar names and events in his memoir and a great deal of detail about the years he was a member of the Communist Party but there’s not much I didn’t already know about what drew well-meaning Americans like Fast and my parents to the Party and how they came to their eventual disillusionment. And if the writing in the novels is comparable to the writing here, I haven’t missed anything.

[Roberta Havel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being Red was unsettling. It is a well written memoir of the then popular author, Howard Fast, who was a communist during the 1950's. As a child of that era, I was unaware of the American Communists, let alone their commitment to civil rights, and equality. I only knew that communists were the bad guys and were Russians, a very bad thing to be during the 1950's. Of course, I later learned about the unjustness of McCarthyism, but still believed in the threat of communism.

Reading this book in 2021 was a revelation, I learned about a man who would have scarified everything to stand-up for his beliefs. What perturbs me about the book, or maybe the man, is that he took so long to denounce the horrible allegiance the U.S Communist party to the Russian Communist party, despite knowing of the widespread anti-semitism and atrocities of Stalin.

If you are interested in this period of history and the communist's role in it, this book is a must read.

.

[RYD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Howard Fast was a novelist and an American Communist who went to jail for contempt of Congress for refusing to name names. This memoir offers a good account of one leftist's life and why he was drawn to communism. He also helps keep in perspective how -- despite the hysteria of the time, and the eventual failure of the Soviet Union -- American Communism was no threat at all:

"If I were to seek some testament to leave to my grandchildren, providing that I had not lived a worthless existence but had done my best to help and nourish the poor and oppressed, I could do no better than to leave them [my] FBI report. In those pages, there is no crime, no breaking of the law, no report of an evil act, an un-American act, an indecent act -- and I was no paragon of virtue, I did enough that I regret -- but the lousy bits and pieces of my life are nowhere in those pages, only the decent and positive acts: speaking at meetings for housing, for trade unionism, for better government, for libertarianism, for a free press, for the right to assemble, for higher minimum wages, for equal justice for black and white, against lynching, against the creation of an underclass, against injustice where injustice was found, and for peace and walking picket lines and collecting signatures. These are what make up that brainless report."

[Rhuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howard Fast, that radical Red American who could get his works sold in the millions in the worldwide media, sums up his career in this autobiographical critique of his life, times, and psyche. Perhaps Fast blew his own horn one time too many and too loud, but he remains one of 20th century America's popular literary giants. That he is not so well-known today has everything to do with the postwar witch hunt that brought down the American Left.

Fast went through the "crises of conscience" that wracked the Party almost from its inception: the Hitler-Stalin "Pact," Khrushchev's "secret speech," and the rise of Perestroika and the fall of walls, curtains, and dialectical materialism. Yet through it all he did not recant before his enemies, groveling for their acceptance and "redemption" like so many in the CPUSA. To Fast this was cowardice, not some heroic "coming clean," and the zeal with which some of his former comrades sold out to the FBI and HUAC was nothing less than Nazi collaboration in occupied Europe. Others chose exile, and this was equally unacceptable to Fast. In his memoir he takes pains to tell his readers "I may have been red, and maybe I still am in a lot of ways; but I'm as American as you, and maybe a better one at that."

I still enjoy Fast's books: "Freedom Road", "Citizen Tom Paine," and "Spartacus" may not be deathless classics of human literature, but they're up there with the best products of the American 20th century. Fast stood for something, and let his name itself carry his message. His best lines come toward the end and bear repeating "It is complex and confusing to be a human being" (p. 327); "the rot of people who possess power" (p. 329). That applied not only to Stalin and his "ists," but to J. Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthy, Ronald Reagan, and to you right now.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howard Fast should receive continuing attention for his role in American literature and history.

[Sharon Zink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howard Fast is a good writer. I did not know he was a communist. This is the second book of his I have read. I am sure some of it is true, and some of it is false. How can he receive the Stalin Prize and have a gift with the inscription something to the effect of, "to an outstanding revolutionary," and expect to avoid prison in the US? Yes, he may have been working for the rights of the poor and downtrodden; but what about the rights of the working people and the people who were providing employment for the "downtodden"? I don't know an anyone who shouldn't read this book. I am glad the communist party failed in the US, and I wish it had failed more.

[Kieran · Rating 4 out of 5]

What drew me to this book was the fact that many local events to me were discussed by Fast in it- the Peekskill Riots specifically. Overall, this is a decent book, a memoir about one of America's most well known communists who ended up becoming disgruntled with the party line.

[Joan R. Lázaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una verdadera joya. Ideas de las que no puedes hacer proselitismo en USA, la mayor de las dictaduras mundiales. Un hombre libre.

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

خواندن اثار هوارد فاست کمک می کند تا تاریخ آمریکا را به گونه ای دیگر، از درون آینه ی ادبیات بشناسیم. اگرچه نه به آن دقت و جزئیات که تاریخ یک قرن فرانسه را می شود از طریق خواندن آثار بالزاک شناخت، با این همه هوارد فاست یک آمریکایی ست که با همه ی دید انتقادی نسبت به فرهنگ و تاریخ ملتش، هم چنان دلسوز مردم و میهن خود باقی مانده است. مهاجران را باجلان فرخی ترجمه کرده و انتشارات اساطیر در 1371 منتشر کرده است. نسل دوم را به فارسی ندیده ام. با وجودی که در برابر دیگر آثار هوارد فاست آنچنان درخشش ندارد، اما کم اثری نیست و مهر روایت های هوارد فاست را بر خود دارد، با وصف شیرینی از شخصیت ها و شرایط اجتماعی و چگونگی زندگی آمریکاییان ساده دل ... "آخرین مرز" هوارد فاست، وصف شایان ها در جامعه ی آمریکاست؛ “غائله تمام شد" اما به راستی تمام نشده. وقتی 140 سرخپوست گرفتار به اردوگاه برده می شوند، تازه پایان یک آغاز است. آغازی برای از میان بردن یک فرهنگ، قتل هزاران نفر از یک ملیت که در سراسر زمینی پر از خون و اشک، در سرزمین خود هم از حق انتخاب گور محروم اند. (ص( 246 وقتی افسر فرمانده به سه رهبر “شایان" می گوید باید به جنوب بروند، پاسخ می دهند “یک شایان دستگیر شده، یک شایان مرده است. آنها مایل نیستند به جنوب بروند و…” دلم نمی خواست به سطر بعدی بروم، نمی خواستم بدانم چه می شود. می خواستم با این “شایان"های دستگیر شده بمانم. افسر به مترجم می گوید “غلط می کنند بر نمی گردند" مترجم که خود از شایان هاست، مکث می کند، به راستی باید این جمله را ترجمه کند؟ فاست وصف می کند شایان ها چگونه ایستاده بودند. آنها دیگر “گرگ کوچک"، “چاقوی کند "و "ابر راه رونده" نیستند، تنها سه “شایان" دستگیر شده اند، سه موجود شکسته شده با پاره جل هایی بر دوششان در زمستانی که استخوان می ترکاند، در دفتر سروان که از آتش بخاری گرم است، ایستاده اند. سه سایه ی بی نام که گوشه ای از اتاق را پر کرده اند. آنها که قبیله ای داشتند، با مردمانی و سرزمینی از خود که زیر پای “پونی"هاشان تخت سلیمان بود، اینک سه جنبنده ی بی نام اند، سه از دست رفته، سه شکست خورده که همه ی حیثیت و شرافتشان بر باد رفته، و هم چنان از جانب افسران و سربازان متجاوز “وحشی ها" خوانده می شوند. شاید این وحشی ها از خود می پرسند؛ خداوندا، مرز بین تمدن و وحش کجاست؟ مرز میان گرسنه ای آواره در سرزمین خود که زیر سایه ی چتری از آخرین مدل هواپیماهای بمب افکن مبهوت ایستاده است! فاست در ابتدای کتاب از پدرش تشکر می کند که سفارش کرده؛ “آمریکای گذشته و آمریکای فعلی را دوست بدارد". شایان های معاصر، خوب می دانند چرا مراکز گرسنگی، بیماری، درد، فقر، وحشت و تروردر سرزمین آنها مستقر شده. اسلحه ها را متمدین دموکرات می سازند تا “تروریست ها" را روی منابع زیر زمینی شان خفه کنند.
Reading Howard Fast helps to read American history with a reflection from the literature. No matter how critically Fast faces American society, he loves his father land, his culture and his nation, deeply and respectfully.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book offers some early examples of political correctness, which I thought was invented in the 1990’s, but which I later learned is just plain old socialist/communist methodology. In the 1940’s, Fast was brought before a tribunal and formally charged with "rank racism" by his communist bosses because he described a seven-year-old black male as a “boy” in one of his books. And then they made him cast James Earl Jones to play the role of a Jewish immigrant in one of Fast’s plays. Seriously.

Fast was basically a talented and hard-working writer who did very well by capitalism. He typifies the type of successful and wealthy artist who is lured by the false promises of socialism; because, as Fast himself says, “It gives one a feeling of being, of consciousness, and of connection.” Like Fast, most CPUSA members were elites and intellectuals - not working class. Founding CPUSA member Ben Gitlow explains this in his memoir "I Confess." This has not changed, and American socialism remains a bastion of wealth and privilege, driven by the same academic/literary/entertainment milieu that Howard Fast was part of. This book reminds one of how influential but also how naïve these activists are.

[Daniel McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great on the ground experience of having a bullseye on you while living through the McCarthy era.

Terrifying what the results are of a bloated FBI budget run by monsters with a political agenda and a disregard of the constitution. Spending millions of dollars harassing harmless, well intentioned intellectuals and artists while basically knowing there is nothing there.

This country loves a good witch hunt.

[RJ Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. the black list. Spartacus. That era of our history. Got it from the library. Socialism at work.

[John Fahey]

Excellent book