Loyalties: A Son's Memoir

Bernstein talks about getting his butt kicked at school after his folks had to testify before Nixon/McCarthy, and it was in the following mornings papers.Helps prove that the media is full of commies, and that if you are someone the media loves to hate, you are speaking the truth.If you are a media darling, you are a commie.Read this and see it for yourself.People old enough to remember Watergate, first hand, have told me it was never revealed that Dick Nixon, Hoover, and McCarthy, were after Bersntein's folks, and had surviellance of Bernstein's bar-mitzvah, (to see who was on the invite list.)My only complaint is all of the Yiddish in the book. The Communist Party must have been exclusivley Jewish, or at least at the mover and shaker level. When Bernstein's Mother was organizing counter-demonstrations to the Rosenberg's (Atomic spies) Death Penalty, she would talk with her family, and other party members, and some of it is related, ver batim. This includes the Yiddish, and Carl doesnt translate it, so I am still clueless as to what the exact phrase was. It's a minor annoyance however, as you certainly get the flavor that this guy was less than objective from the time he was very little when it came to his desire to whip up the public against Nixon. Remember when Nixon was reelected he had over 60% approval ratings. Ratings as high as the media loved to tell us about comrade Clinton.Check it out, very informative as to who the players in American Communism were, what their goals were, and how they acheived them.This book could encourage independent thought among media watching American consumers, but let us not get to hopeful. Also check out "Silent Coup" from Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin.

I love this book and have never understood how and why it went out of print. Maybe it helps the reader to be from Washington, DC. Carl Bernstein grew up around here, went to school around here, and his parents and family were very much part of the local radical scene, so when he names names and locates businesses, schools and houses, it's all walkable for those of us who live in the District. But beyond the local interest, Carl Bernstein gives us a strong sense of what it was to be part of a radical fifties family. This was a time when conformity was so nuanced, so as a kid Bernstein was both proud and ashamed to have his mother's picture appear on the front page of a major newspaper when she was arrested for picketing the Five and Ten. (People forget how much the Communist party contributed to the Civil Rights movement in some parts of the country during a period when there was still a risk of job loss for many who wanted to protest segregation.) In short, this is a minor classic, much underrated and well worth reading. I teach history and I'd happily use it forone of my classes if I could just get enough copies for my students! My students who have read have all had good things to say.