democracy

Michael Gold: The People’s Writer

By Patrick Chura

SUNY Press

Reviewed by Marnie Mueller 

In the very last pages of his story of the life of Michael Gold, Patrick Chura writes: “Gold managed the challenge of proving the existence of another America, and how difficult it made his life.” An avowed and uncompromising Marxist, Gold has fallen from the literary canon and political history of America, despite his major contributions. In writing of him, Chura has also told the story of my parents and people like them, who dedicated their lives to making a better, more equitable nation, and suffered as a result of their beliefs and actions. In this biography he brings to light, as Gold did, an insidious, anti-democratic thread in America — a long historical strain of racism, classism, and anti-Semitism lying in wait for a leader to tap into that vein of ugliness.

Michael Gold was born in a tenement in 1893 as Itzok Isaac Granich (aka Irwin Granich), and he later wrote: “It was in a tenement that I first heard the sad music of humanity rise to the stars. The sky above the airshafts was all my sky, and the voices of the tenement neighbors in the airshaft were the voices of all my world. There in my suffering youth, I feverishly sought God and found Man.”

In order to become “Michael Gold” the author, Irwin Granich had to break with that old culture. Chura describes how it felt like suicide for Gold to separate himself from his parents and their assimilationist desires for prosperity and choose his own path, his “synthesis for life,” as an author and activist. This was his talent and his undoing. His major literary gift to the American canon was Jews without Money in 1930, an autobiographical proletarian novel about growing up in that world. It was enormously successful and translated into over a dozen languages. His only novel, it served as a model for political fiction and the touchstone and source of strength for his own critical writing and editorial influence in progressive and Marxist periodicals.

Gold’s strong views on political literature gained followers, but as time went on, the strength and some would say rigidity of his beliefs undercut his standing in that intellectual world. Chura doesn’t shrink from showing how Gold could turn against his fellow authors—even those whose work he had lauded on first encounter, like Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, whom he later determined didn’t live up to his notions of true proletarian and anti-racist writing. During the McCarthy Era, they retreated to safer ground; Gold deemed them mere visitors to the life of the poor and underprivileged. 

This biography brings to light, as Michael Gold did, an insidious, anti-democratic thread in America — a long historical strain of racism, classism, and anti-Semitism lying in wait for a leader to tap into that vein of ugliness.

In Faulkner’s case, Gold’s aggrievement seems especially justified. In 1956, when Autherine Lucy attempted to integrate the University of Alabama, Faulkner the liberal Southerner walked back his support of Black Americans, retreating to a stance against “forced integration,” saying he would join with “that embattled white minority who are our blood and kin.” Shocked, Gold responded, “This surely is thinking with the blood … the sort of ‘thinking’ that loomed large in Nazi ideology, and has long kept the South in pauperism.” 

In this stand, Gold linked racism, anti-Semitism, capitalism, and classism as the greatest of political evils. Gold’s criticism and opinion pieces also foretold of a progressive rigidity in promulgating what is correct and non-correct in proletariat storytelling, morphing into our current conundrum of demanding authenticity of class and racial credentials.

Nearer to my own life and family was the support Gold gave to the cooperative movement, which was thought of as a subversive, socialist concept in the 1930s and 1940s. My father, an economist, was a strong believer in and promulgator of co-ops as giving an economic power base for the “little guy” against the corporate state. So it was with great surprise that upon entering the Peace Corps I found myself in Puerto Rico in 1963 with a group training to work in Ecuador as specialists in co-operative movement credit unions. Gold might have been even more astonished to learn that this once-thought radical movement was being used in the fight against Communist inroads in Latin America.

My parents became an example of those progressive commitments when they decided to spend their honeymoon and first year of marriage in 1938 working in the Farm Security camp which John Steinbeck used as research for The Grapes of Wrath. They later went to work in the Tule Lake Japanese American High Security Camp to try to make a horrific situation tolerable for those who had been imprisoned there. But they, along with many progressives of their generation, were punished during the McCarthy period and accused of being Communists, resulting in their loss of livelihood and vocation.

Signing up for the Peace Corps brought it home to me. I remember my father’s distress when the FBI walked from house to house in our neighborhood asking about our family, in preparation for deciding whether the Peace Corps would accept my application for service. My father feared that the attacks on him during the McCarthy witch hunts would ruin my possibility of following my dream. It’s a tribute to the Peace Corps they judged me solely on my accomplishments.

In vividly bringing to us the life and struggles of Michael Gold, Chura has told the inside story of “another America” — one in which those of us who grew up in the 1940s and 1950s were fearful that the political secrets of our parents would be revealed to our more conventional playmates and the surrounding community. 

In addition to a mastery of research, synthesis, analysis, compassion, and fluid prose in vividly bringing to us the life and struggles of Michael Gold, Chura has told the inside story of “another America” — one in which those of us who grew up in the 1940s and 1950s were fearful that the political secrets of our parents would be revealed to our more conventional playmates and the surrounding community. 

Patrick Chura himself served as a Volunteer in Lithuania 1992–94 and is a professor of English at University of Akron, where he teaches 19th- and 20th-century American literature and cultural studies. In introducing Gold’s family life into the narrative, Chura lets the reader see that political activists of that time — like Gold and like my parents — loved their children and tried to protect us, with as much commitment as they invested in making our country a better place for all Americans.

This review originally appeared on Peace Corps Worldwide and appears in the Spring-Summer 2022 edition of WorldView magazine. 

Marnie Mueller served as a Volunteer in Ecuador 1963–65. She is the author of three novels, including The Climate of the Country, which takes place in the Tule Lake Japanese American Internment Camp in Northern California.

Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol: this terrible moment — and the road ahead

By Glenn Blumhorst

Photo: Guarding the chamber door while extremists storm the Capitol. From video shot by Rep. Dan Kildee

Yesterday was a horrific day for our country. A violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, smashing windows and looting offices. They sent members of Congress and their staffs scrambling for their lives, barricading into offices and chambers and huddling beneath chairs. Explosive devices were found. One of the extremists who stormed the building was fatally shot. Three other people have died in other incidents. And on Thursday night an officer with the Capitol Hill police died of injuries he sustained during the assault.

We condemn these acts of violence and chaos in the strongest possible terms. The Peace Corps community is committed to building peace and friendship. When we are sworn in as Volunteers, we take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This was an attempted coup by domestic terrorists.

Symbolically and literally, democracy itself was under assault. What do we take from this moment? It’s profoundly clear that the work of building peace needs to start here at home. Many in the Peace Corps community have observed this fact as well: These extremists who took part in the attack and paraded through Congress with Confederate flags were treated far differently — and with nothing like the force — that would have met — and has met — Black protesters. It underscores once more that we need to address racial justice as a root issue in our society. 

The terror hits close to home: Dozens of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers serve as congressional staff. Their lives were at risk.

We stand in solidarity with the public servants who were terrorized by these acts of violence. That includes not just members of Congress but the many staff who work behind the scenes — especially those who are people of color. In this respect, the terror hits close to home: Dozens of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers serve as congressional staff. Their lives were at risk. Our hearts go out to them. But that is not enough.

Amid all the horrors of yesterday, it is reprehensible that among the violent mob that stormed the Capitol is one man who served in the Peace Corps — and later undertook basic training in the Marine Corps before being discharged. A CBS affiliate interviewed him afterward; he gave his name and home state of New Jersey. “We tore through the scaffolding and flashbangs,” he said. “We stormed into the chambers inside.” He described witnessing the death of the woman who was shot — and clearly felt the actions by him and other violent extremists were justified. His identity has been reported to the FBI.

What we must do

We must be unequivocal: Violence and hatred have no place in the Peace Corps community. Those who took part in these violent acts — and those who incited them — must be held accountable. 

I sincerely believe that the Peace Corps community can and will play a pivotal role in the U.S. re-engaging with the world. And during these months of crisis, we’ve seen many take inspiration from the model of the Peace Corps in looking for solutions to big domestic problems. This moment also underscores once more that, as we undertake the work we do, we must do it with a sense of humility and solidarity — and a sense of what’s at stake, not just for the Peace Corps, or even for our country. 

“The rule of law & democratic procedures need to be restored as soon as possible,” wrote the foreign minister of Ukraine — a country that is home to one of the largest Peace Corps programs in the world. “This is important not only for the U.S., but for Ukraine and the entire democratic world as well.”

I want to give a special thanks to those who have given their support to work for the Peace Corps community in recent months. With your time and effort, and your commitment, we will ensure that the Peace Corps and the values it is meant to nurture can play an important role in the great unfinished task ahead of us.

Story updated January 9, 2021 at 10 a.m. 

Glenn Blumhorst is President & CEO of National Peace Corps Association. He served as a Volunteer in Guatemala 1988–91. 

 At a time of great turmoil in our nation, NPCA is working with with nonpartisan groups to foster free and fair elections, to encourage discussion and understanding across political divides,  and to underscore the importance of national service.

By WorldView Staff 

Power the Polls

We believe in empowering people to shape their own futures. This election season the coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll across the country, leading to a staggering decrease in the number of people able to work the polls. So National Peace Corps Association partnered with Power the Polls to recruit poll workers from the Peace Corps community to ensure a safe and fair election for all voters. powerthepolls.org

Democracy for President

Why does democracy matter? It’s about a system and a culture — and a shared commitment to one another. At a time of national division, Democracy for President is a new nonpartisan initiative to help individuals and communities across the country bolster confidence in the integrity of the 2020 election. 

Created by research group More in Common, the Democracy for President website poses some big questions: Can we trust the outcome of the election? How do I talk with someone I don’t agree with? How do I talk about violence and the election? 

There are discussion guides, shareable infographics, and op-ed templates about how all Americans — regardless of who they will support in voting up through November 3 — can strengthen democracy. democracyforpresident.com

Serve America Together

National service mattters. NPCA has joined more than 80 leaders, including former cabinet secretaries, diplomats, and Pentagon appointees on a bipartisan Serve America Together letter calling on presidential campaigns to prioritize and expand national service.

The goal: empower young Americans, respond to COVID-19, and help knit our country back together. serveamericatogether.org  

This story was first published in WorldView magazine’s Fall 2020 issue. Read the entire magazine for free now in the WorldView app. Here’s how:

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