Negative Positive
Title: WRITTEN UNDER DISCIPLINE
Review: This book is undoubtedly rewarding reading, and yet it very much strikes the informed reader as having been created under [Communist Party, USA] discipline. As Aptheker notes in her introduction, she was a remember of the CPUSA's national commmittee when she wrote this book in 1973; it was first issued by the party's International Publishers two years later. Ironically, Aptheker lauds the socialist countries, especially the USSR, throughout her narrative. It's deeply regretable that Aptheker and her comrades protested the political incarceration of Davis and other U.S. militants and yet passively supported the repression meted out to Soviet and Czech dissidents during the same period. During an official visit to Czechoslavakia in 1972, Davis herself insisted that imprisoned rebels of the 1968 Prague Spring "deserved what they got" and should remain behind bars. As you read this book, I encourage you to keep the duality of such positions foremost in your mind.
Is the review positive or negative? 