Biography of Kansas Son of Irish Immigrants
A KC son of Irish immigrants is featured in the World Socialist Web Site on the occasion of the publication of a major biography - because he is one of the leading figures of early American Communism and the founder of the American Trotskyist movement in 1928.
James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928, is a 500-plus page book by Bryan D. Palmer, published by the University of Illinois Press. It is reviewed by Fred Mazelis and Tom Mackaman.
James P. Cannon was born in 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, to Irish immigrant parents who had been born in England and emigrated to the US in the previous decade. They were part of an influx of immigrants that saw nine million arrive in the decade of the 1880s, with similar numbers settling in the US over the next forty years.
I never heard any discussions of communism or socialism when I was in KC, with the polarization of the now traditional two party views ruling out most anything else or even cross-party views. I’m a little bit disappointed that Rosedale to me only means barbecue and disc golf.
This book is the first volume of two that complete the biography, and you can buy it if it’s your cup of tea from the publishers
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