Bedacht, Max Manuscript, 1967
Collection Number: 6224
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Max Bedacht Manuscript, 1967
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
6224
Abstract:
This typescript autobiography, "On the path of life," deals with Bedacht's reflections
on American and international communist leaders and the workings of the Comintern.
He describes the factional feuds within the Communist Party, refutes Whittaker Chambers'
charges against him in Witness! and recounts the circumstances around his expulsion
from the party in 1948, and his reinstatement in 1960. His work establishing and leading
the International Workers Order is also traced. Throughout the memoir he comments
on world events and their implications for socialism. Photocopies of photographs and
of important documents are included.
Creator:
Bedacht, Max
Quanitities:
0.5 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English
Max Bedacht was a communist activist and theoretician. After an impoverished childhood
and career as a journeyman barber and trade union leader in Germany and Switzerland,
he immigrated to the United States in 1908 where he supported himself as a barber
and German language newspaper editor. Bedacht became an early leader of the German
Federation of the Socialist Party in California, while continuing to edit German language
and labor mewspapers in Detroit, San Francisco and South Dakota. From World War I
onward his sympathies were increasingly with the left wing of the Socialist Party
and at the 1919 convention he joined the Communist Labor Party. Caught up in the Palmer
Raids in California and Chicago, he was arrested and tried for conspiracy. He was
convicted but never imprisoned and was soon travelling to Europe and Russia as an
international delegate for the American Communist Party.
This typescript autobiography, "On the path of life," deals with Bedacht's reflections
on American and international communist leaders and the workings of the Comintern.
He describes the factional feuds within the Communist Party, refutes Whittaker Chambers'
charges against him in Witness! and recounts the circumstances around his expulsion
from the party in 1948, and his reinstatement in 1960. His work establishing and leading
the International Workers Order is also traced. Throughout the memoir he comments
on world events and their implications for socialism. Photocopies of photographs and
of important documents are included.
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference
archivist for access to these materials.
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and
Procedures for Document Use.
INFORMATION FOR USERS
Max Bedacht Manuscript #6224. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library.
Names:
Browder, Earl, 1891-1973.
Chambers, Whittaker.
Ruthenberg, Charles E. (Charles Emil), 1882-1927.
Communist International
Communist Party of the United States of America
International Workers Order
Socialist Party (U.S.)
Subjects:
Socialism -- United States
Communism -- United States
Communists -- United States
CONTAINER LIST
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Container
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Description
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Date
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| Box 1 | Folder 1 |
Table of Contents
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| Box 1 | Folder 2 |
In Place of an Introduction
|
1967 |
| Box 1 | Folder 3 |
Chapter 1: From Darkness Into Light, pp 1-12
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 4 |
Chapter 2: Growing Up, pp 12-18
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| Box 1 | Folder 5 |
Chapter 3: School Days, pp 19-26
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| Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Chapter 4: Apprenticeship, pp 27-34
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| Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Chapter 5: At Last: A Journeyman, pp 35-40
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| Box 1 | Folder 8 |
Chapter 6: Out Into the Wide World, pp 41-50
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| Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Chapter 7: My Eyes Begin Opening, pp 51-65
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| Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Chapters 8 & 9: I Continue Wandering, pp 65-96
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| Box 1 | Folder 11 |
Chapter 10: Out of the Old Into a New World, pp 96-104
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| Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Chapter 11: My Americanization, pp 105-119
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| Box 1 | Folder 13 |
Chapter 12: A Variety of Democracies, pp 119-128
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| Box 1 | Folder 14 |
Chapter 13: The Muckrakers, pp 128-142
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| Box 1 | Folder 15 |
Chapter 14: The American Socialist Party, pp 142-148
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| Box 1 | Folder 16 |
Chapter 15: Peace, War, and Revolution, pp 149-173
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| Box 1 | Folder 17 |
Chapter 15(a): New Experiences-New Lessons, pp 173-212
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| Box 1 | Folder 18 |
Chapter 16: In Conflict With the Goddess of Justice, pp 213-245
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| Box 1 | Folder 19 |
Chapter 17: A Better World is in Birth, pp 246-261
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| Box 1 | Folder 20 |
Chapter 18: I Meet Lenin, pp 262-273
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| Box 1 | Folder 21 |
Chapter 19: The City of Moscow, pp 273-276
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| Box 1 | Folder 22 |
Chapter 20: The Third Congress of the Comintern, pp 277-283
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| Box 1 | Folder 23 |
Chapter 21: Returning Home to the U.S., pp 283-288
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| Box 1 | Folder 24 |
Chapter 22: The Geese Were Hatched, pp 289-293
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| Box 1 | Folder 25 |
Chapter 22(a): The Fourth Congress of the Comintern, pp 293-301
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| Box 1 | Folder 26 |
Chapter 23: Beginning and Growth of Factionalism, pp 301-315
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| Box 1 | Folder 27 |
Chapter 24: Through Bossism to Disintegration, pp 315-319
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| Box 1 | Folder 28 |
Chapter 25: The Witness, pp 319-329
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| Box 1 | Folder 29 |
Chapter 26: The Depression, pp 329-334
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| Box 1 | Folder 30 |
Chapter 27: Bossism Replaces Factionalism, pp 334-339
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| Box 1 | Folder 31 |
Chapter 28: National Groups, pp 339-346
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| Box 1 | Folder 32 |
Chapter 29: Fascist Murderers in Spain, pp 346-352
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| Box 1 | Folder 33 |
Chapter 30: The Second World War, pp 352-360
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| Box 1 | Folder 34 |
Chapter 31: Life Begins at Sixty-Four, pp 361-371
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| Box 1 | Folder 35 |
Chapter 32: Farm No Static Entity, pp 372-380
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| Box 1 | Folder 36 |
Chapter 32(a): Expelled, pp 380-388
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| Box 1 | Folder 37 |
Chapter 33: Pettit Bourgeois Substance of Revolutionary Pretenses, pp 389-400
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| Box 1 | Folder 38 |
Chapter 34: Studying Times and Events, pp 400-408
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| Box 1 | Folder 39 |
Chapter 35: Stalin Takes Lenin's Place, pp 408-416
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| Box 1 | Folder 40 |
Chapter 36: Genuine Sins-False Confessions, pp 416-425
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| Box 1 | Folder 41 |
Chapter 37: A False Spark of Life, pp 425-427
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| Box 1 | Folder 42 |
Chapter 38: Still Looking Forward, pp 427-431
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| Box 1 | Folder 43 |
Chapter 39: A Final Round-up, pp 431-433
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| Box 1 | Folder 44 |
Our Civilization and its Education, pp 433-435
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| Box 1 | Folder 45 |
Civilization and Religion, pp 436-437
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| Box 1 | Folder 46 |
Politics and Civilization, pp 437-439
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| Box 1 | Folder 47 |
Civilization and Wars, pp 440-443
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| Box 1 | Folder 48 |
Civilization and Our Social Sciences, pp 444-445
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