American Gandhi: A.J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the Twentieth Century by Leilah Danielson (review)

Abstract

AMERICAN GANDHI: A.J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the Twentieth Century. By Leilah Danielson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2014.Leilah Danielson's outstanding biography offers a much-needed analysis of A.J. Muste's efforts for labor, his crusade for peace, his influence on the civil rights movement, and most importantly, the philosophy that underpinned them all. According to Danielson, Muste developed a prophetic politics in which action and commitment represented an effort not only to change society, but also to maintain one's humanity (2). This vision shaped his pacifist movement and his work in labor, and it allowed him to help black leaders like Bayard Rustin and James Farmer build the foundations of the direct action, nonviolent civil rights movement made famous by Martin Luther King Jr.At the heart of Muste's crusade to create a peaceful and equitable world was his pragmatic focus on cooperation. Invoking Doug Rossinow's idea of the liberal-left tradition (3) in U.S. history, Danielson highlights Muste's history of collaboration, whether between progressive labor and liberals, pacifists and civil rights leaders, or intellectuals and workers in the labor movement. She emphasizes Muste's role as a bridge between groups that shared goals but differed in opinion over how to achieve their ends. She attributes his ability to build such bridges to the influence of pragmatist philosophers such as John Dewey and William James. She also describes how Muste blended pragmatism with his religious background and training to formulate a unique vision of peaceful resistance similar but not identical to Gandhi's.The first major innovation in Danielson's biography is her restoration of Muste to his place within the labor movement. Not only did he participate in key strikes and onthe-ground efforts but he also played an essential role in the workers' education movement through his work as head of Brookwood Labor College and national secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Through these he worked to educate workers and build a mass movement of nonviolent direct action to improve the condition of African Americans, sharecroppers, industrial workers, and other oppressed groups. His analysis of education and culture under capitalism anticipated Antonio Gramsci's ideas about hegemony and culture, and his efforts at worker education challenge historical narratives of the decade as a period of quiescence and suggest that the seeds of the CIO and the 'cultural front' of the 1930s were laid a decade earlier (67). …