Perseverance

      Joanne became an avid reader in her retirement. When she began a book if she wasn't engaged by the end of the first chapter she'd move on to a different book. Had I subscribed to that dictum I'd probably never have finished Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna. It's not a new book, copyrighted in 2009, and sent to me by MJV quite a while ago.  It's a slow starter, that I kept reading, while not very engaging, it was interesting. At some point it, well into it, became captivating.

     It's a novel and Harrison Shepherd, is the main character's. His mother is Mexican and father American. Consequently he moves between Mexico and America. In the book he becomes Leon Trotsky's cook. Trotsky fled Stalin and Mexico was the only country that would give him asylum, which is an historical fact. Eventually Shepherd moves back to the States and pursues a very successful career as an author. That is, until her runs afoul of the post WWII hysteria about Communism. It's well to be aware of the abuses of civil liberties during that time as an antidote so they are not repeated today.

      Kingsolver is at her best chronicling the absurdities of the anti-Communist madness that swept the country at the outset of the Cold War. At that point the book became a page turner rewarding earlier perseverance. It was worth waiting for. She references the  Mundt-Nixon Bill (see below)which got my attention because I remember when Mundt was a senator from South Dakota, though I have no recollection of this bill.

      It's worth reading for its historical relevance.

Takk for alt,

Al

MUNDT-NIXON BILL (1948–1949)

Karl Mundt of South Dakota and Richard M. Nixon of California, members of the house committee on un-american activities, sponsored the first anticommunist bill of the Cold War era. They contended that a house-cleaning of the executive department and a full exposure of past derelictions regarding communists would come only from a body in no way corrupted by ties to the administration. The measure (HR 5852) contained antisedition provisions but also reflected the view that the constitutional way to fight communists was by forcing them out into the open. The bill thus would have required the Communist party and "front" organizations to register with the Department of Justice and supply names of officers and members. It would also require that publications of these organizations, when sent through the mails, be labeled "published in compliance with the laws of the United States, governing the activities of agents of foreign principals."

The measure passed the house by a large margin but failed in the senate after becoming a controversial factor in the presidential campaign of 1948. The bill was denounced by the Republican candidate, Thomas E. Dewey, and numerous respected national publications as a form of unwarranted thought control.

Paul L. Murphy
(1986)