Born into a Georgia sharecropper family in 1898, Hosea Hudson moved to Birmingham, Alabama, to work in the steel mills in the turbulent 1930s and 1940s and became a member of the Communist Party as well as president of a CIO union local. It was a hard, dangerous life, to be Black and communist and pro-union, and Hudson talked about that life to Nell Painter, who brilliantly recreates it in this collaborative oral autobiography.

About the Author
Nell Irvin Painter is the award-winning author of many books, including Standing at Armageddon and The History of White People. She is the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University and lives in East Orange, New Jersey, and the Adirondacks. Nell Irvin Painter is the award-winning author of many books, including Standing at Armageddon and The History of White People. She is the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University and lives in East Orange, New Jersey, and the Adirondacks.

Reviews
"Valuable and exuberant...artfully organized and edited....Its strength is Mr. Hudson's remarkable memory, his ability to evoke the drudgery and minutiae that are at the core of any devoted party member's life, black or white, North or South." -- Joe Klein - New York Times Book Review
"Among the many exemplary qualities of this narrative and its hero is their lack of sentimentality. For Hosea Hudson, there is no romance of American Communism; instead, his relationship with the Communist Party is a model of mutual exploitation....[A] marvelous book. Moving, fearful, and funny, Hudson and Painter's Narrative is as valuable an American life as has ever been wrested from anonymity." -- Benita Eisler - The Nation



Book Information
ISBN 9780393310153
Author Hosea Hudson
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 633g
Dimensions(mm) 239mm * 155mm * 28mm