Red Diapers


Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left, published in 1998, was the first anthology of writings by "red diaper babies": children born of Communist Party USA members or of parents who would become affiliated with the Party. Edited by Judy Kaplan and Linn Shapiro, the book consists mainly of autobiographical essays; however, a few of the red diaper babies chose to express themselves via poems or short stories.
While most of the book's 47 contributors are not well-known names, there are exceptions such as journalist Carl Bernstein, feminist writer Kim Chernin, political activist Bettina Aptheker, scientist Richard Levins, and author/activist Robert Meeropol. All of the contributors were born between 1909 and 1974.
Red Diapers was not reviewed in the mainstream press, but it did receive favorable coverage in leftist and academic publications, and was praised by notable figures from 20th century American radical politics, including Pete Seeger, Ring Lardner, Jr., Howard Zinn, and Angela Davis.

Description

In the book's Introduction, Judy Kaplan and Linn Shapiro explain how they organized the autobiographical essays into three thematic sections:
  1. Family Albums focuses on the daily lives of red diaper babies and the unique experiences of being raised in an American Communist family.
  2. Political Trauma as Personal History documents the effects of red-baiting and political persecution on the child's developing psyche, with Robert Meeropol being the best exemplar.
  3. Claiming Our Heritage "examines varied ways in which red diaper babies have come to terms with a left-wing political legacy", with some of the writers embracing that legacy in their adulthood, and others expressing resentment at what they considered early indoctrination, and choosing to distance themselves from any political involvement.
Within each section, the essays are sorted chronologically by the birth year of the contributor.
Kaplan and Shapiro assert that those who view Communism as a monolithic ideology "would be surprised at the variety of parenting styles described in this anthology. Some authors recall their parents as warm and supportive; others depict families in which deviant politics exacerbated parental dysfunction. Still others describe growing up with parents who were loving yet oblivious to the challenges, even traumas, their children faced." The editors also claim that the book's essays raise broader questions that are not specific to red diaper babies, such as "How are political values transmitted across generations?" and "What role have political subcultures played in sustaining dissident movements?"
In her assessment of the book, Professor Robbie Lieberman observed a common burden felt by many of the contributors:
Safeguarding the secret sometimes required living a double life, or "passing" as a person with mild political views—a predicament which Dorothy Zellner conveys in her essay titled "Proletaria and Me". She recalls that as a "quasi-Bohemian" teenage art student in the early 1950s, she was:

Reception

Upon its publication in 1998, Red Diapers was not reviewed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, Los Angeles Times or any of the other mainstream outlets that review current books. However, it was lauded in leftist publications, for example, in the Communist History Network Newsletter, Pat Devine of University of Manchester said of Red Diapers: "Through it we enter a world populated by ordinary people who did extraordinary things in exceptional circumstances as they worked to make the world a better place."
In the blurbs for Red Diapers, Pete Seeger wrote, "I recommend this book to any young person curious about people in the twentieth-century U.S.A. who called themselves communists. It's a diverse lot of intimate recollections, more reliable than the academic or political generalities we've heard for years. Lots of contradictions and tangles." Howard Zinn said it contained "fascinating glimpses of the lives of a special group of people, poignant and thought-provoking—an important contribution to the social history of our time." Angela Davis called the book "A remarkable collective memoir.... It bears witness to a powerful tradition of radical 'family values' from which emerged a generation of leftist organizers who have made an indelible mark on U.S. social movements. Perhaps most importantly, this wonderful volume demystifies the process of radicalization by foregrounding the humanity of those of us whose family legacies have been defined by radicalism."
In H-Net Reviews, American historian Jennifer Keene characterized the anthology as "a fascinating array of personal narratives":
In her review in the Left History journal, Rebecca Schreiber commended Red Diapers for providing new perspectives on aspects of the CPUSA, but also identified shortcomings in the book:
Schreiber also faulted the editors for treating the various contributions as "raw data" which only required minimal commentary and analysis. Schreiber believed, on the contrary, that the book would have been improved if the editors had supplied an analytical framework, more in-depth than their remarks in the Introduction, to give the essays greater meaning to the reader.
Ronald Radosh sharply criticized Kaplan and Shapiro's approach to editing the anthology: