The Red Decade

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The Red Decade is a term coined by journalist and historian Eugene Lyons^[1] to describe a period in American history in the 1930s characterized by a widespread infatuation with communism in general and Stalinism in particular. Lyons believed this idolization of Joseph Stalin and exultation of Bolshevik achievements to have reached its high point in 1938, running deepest amongst liberals, intellectuals, journalists, and even some government officials.

Lyons argues that American intellectuals gave the then-Stalinist Soviet Union (and by extension, Stalinism) a certain international goodwill and respectability that it did not deserve.

References[]

Further reading[]

• Lyons, Eugene (1941). The red decade: The Stalinist Penetration of America. Simon Publications. ISBN 1-931541-07-8.
• (1993). Liberals and Communism: The Red Decade Revisited. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08445-5.