Book Review

Canada and the United States

Bill V. Mullen's mission is to refresh our cultural memories. He wants to remind us not only of African-American cultural production in the "Chicago Renaissance" that took place before and during World War II, but also that the U.S. Left—in the form of the Communist Party and the individuals and organizations of its Popular Front—played a significant role in the period. We need to revisit this era because "critical gaps and historical inconsistencies in accounts of Chicago's South Side cultural and political scene . . . are largely attributable to the successful erasure of the nature, influence, and practice of radical political thought and culture there" (p. 24). Mullen's task is a commendable one, for too often this period in African-American and U.S. Left history is overlooked. Further, he does us the service of linking these two histories together in detailed ways that show the ongoing, if contentious, relationship between African-American and (largely white) radical cultural and political movements.

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In undertaking such an ambitious project, Mullen plays many roles: he is by turns archival historian, scholar of mass and popular culture, and traditional literary critic. Ultimately, he is most successful in reviving the centrality of traditions of protest writing in African-American cultural history, a move that has the benefit of emphasizing the context in which artists, writers, and publishers were working.

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