Alone Together: American Intellectuals in the American-Soviet Friendship Movement

635 Pages·2016·3.07 MB·English

UC Riverside
UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Alone Together: American Intellectuals in the American-Soviet Friendship Movement
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/03t0w1t7
Author
Wagner, David Byron
Publication Date
2016

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE

Alone Together:
American Intellectuals in the American-Soviet Friendship Movement

A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in

History

by

David Byron Wagner

June 2016

Dissertation Committee:
Dr. Brian D. Lloyd, Chairperson
Dr. Molly McGarry
Dr. Kiril Tomoff
Copyright by
David Byron Wagner
2016
The Dissertation of David Byron Wagner is approved:

Committee Chairperson

University of California, Riverside
Acknowledgements

Above all, I am indebted to Brian Lloyd, my dissertation advisor, who was so
important in helping me to clarify my intentions and arguments in this work. Brian has
been an inspired editor, collaborator, and critic. I am enormously grateful and hope he is
pleased with the result. I also appreciate the hard work and insightful suggestions of my
additional readers Molly McGarry and Kiril Tomoff. Thanks also to Catherine Gudis and
John Ganim, who served on my PhD oral exam committee. You are all fantastic.
Most of the research for this project was conducted at the Tamiment Library at
New York University, which has my thanks for providing access to several collections
necessary for this project. I did further research at San Diego State University, the Motion
Picture Association of America’s Mary Pickford Center, and Columbia University. I am
appreciative of all of the help offered me by archivists in all of these institutions. Special
thanks goes to Tamiment archivist Bonnie Gordon, who pointed me toward Morford’s
biographical manuscripts in the Abbott Simon Papers, which more or less tied all of the
rest of the evidence together. Also, I want to acknowledge the generosity of Donald
Simpson at Abilene Christian University, who scanned what may be the sole remaining
copy of Corliss Lamont’s “Why I Am Not a Communist” for me specifically, free of
charge.
I also thank all of the individuals who offered me their support in navigating the
world of American-Soviet friendship. Skye Moody, who interviewed Richard Morford in
extraordinary depth in the 1980s, was remarkably receptive to discussion about a project
she had not likely given much thought to in some thirty years. She was generous with her
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time and thoughtful in her answers to my many questions. Thanks, Skye. I also want to
highlight the encouragement offered by Beth K. Lamont, Tracy Strong, and Joseph
Hancock.
My family, particularly my parents, were a warm and consistent source of support
during the research and writing of this dissertation, whether at a distance of two-thousand
miles in the first two years of my research and writing, or at just a couple blocks in the
last few months. My wife Tiffany was the MVP of this entire project (as she is in every
part of my life). Tiffany patiently endured my endless ruminations upon this topic, as
well as my absence during the research process. She also served as a constant source of
encouragement, a sounding board, and an occasional editor. Thank you so, so much. I am
also grateful to my gentleman cats Fez and Sandal, who have graced me with their
distinguished company in this long and lonely process. With a heavy heart, I close by
giving thanks to my beloved dog Precious, who did not survive the writing of this
dissertation but whose life and love were integral to its completion.

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For Precious,
You are missed.

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ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Alone Together:
American Intellectuals in the American-Soviet Friendship Movement

by

David Byron Wagner

Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History
University of California, Riverside, June 2016
Brian D. Lloyd, Chairperson

American intellectuals who participated in American-Soviet friendship groups
between the 1920s and 1980s are often classified as “fellow travelers” in the literature of
the American Left. Scholars have deemed the American-Soviet friendship organizations
– most prominently the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (NCASF) –
“Communist-fronts,” a phrase used to designate groups that pretended to be loyal to
American institutions but in fact served Soviet purposes. In the tradition of Denning’s
work on the Popular Front and Isserman’s on the American Communist Party, this
dissertation complicates our understanding of the American-Soviet friendship movement
and its leaders. By examining the influences and careers of four leaders of the movement
– Corliss Lamont, Richard Morford, Rockwell Kent, and Harry Steinmetz – this
dissertation proves that the intellectuals and reformers drawn to the American-Soviet
friendship movement pursued ideas and ideals that were current at the time – pacifism,
pragmatism, techno-utopianism, humanism, progressive education, artistic realism – but
did so in a manner that gave the cause of American-Soviet friendship a unique flavor that
distinguished it from the Popular Front and Communist Party. The friendship movement
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supplied an environment in which to explore alternative visions of social progress and
human justice, and it was ultimately the leadership’s commitment to these alternative
visions – rather than loyalty to the Soviet Union or communism in general – that shaped
the careers of those who proposed to lead that movement.

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Table of Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: The Origins and Structure of American-Soviet Friendship in the United States .......... 19
Chapter 2: Tough Love – American-Soviet Friendship in the Cold War ......................................... 93
Chapter 3: Corliss Lamont – A Pragmatist in Utopian Clothing ................................................... 182
Chapter 4: Richard Morford – Facing the Social Imperatives of the Gospel ............................... 271
Chapter 5: Rockwell Kent: A Man Out of Time ............................................................................ 365
Chapter 6: Harry Steinmetz: Collectivist Seeks Collective ........................................................... 465
Epilogue and Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 561
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 597
Appendix: Table of Abbreviations ................................................................................................ 625

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