Lancashire Giant: David Shackleton, Labour Leader and Civil Servant Book

Quick! Name every notable person that was born in Kansas you can think of. You probably thought of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Carrie Nation and possibly the founder of Pizza Hut. Sorry if you said John Brown or Dorothy Gale. John Brown wasn't born in Kansas and Dorothy Gale isn't real. However, you probably didn't think of one of the founders of the American Communist Party. In the book, Earl Browder: The Failure of American Communism by James G. Ryan, you get a real zero to hero story; if your definition of a hero is a commie.

Earl Browder was born in Wichita, Kansas. He was the youngest of eight children. As a young child, he was drawn towards radical parties. He felt that the power should go to the workers, thus he was drawn to Socialism. He joined the American Socialist party when he was just 15. All of the 15-year-olds I know haven't done anything significant in their life.

The Socialist Party was against war. Browder and many other Socialists were sent to prison for refusing the draft. While he was in prison, the American Communist Party was formed. When he was released, he left behind his family, moved to New York and joined the party. He instantly started working his way up until he eventually became the leader of the Communist Party.

This book is very difficult to read. I would not recommend it unless you already have an understanding on what Communism is. I had a very hard time getting through it. I needed to stop multiple times whilst reading to research what something meant or to ask my dad about it. My dad wrote an article that included Earl Browder and he only read through the first chapter. With that aside, it's a very interesting read. I wouldn't advise reading it in high school though. You should probably wait until your later college years to read it.

It's a very academic book. It's just straight up facts, no comedy. It would be great if you were doing a research project on early Communism in America. However, as I stated earlier, I would advise having some form of prior knowledge on the subject before attempting to read this.

So overall, I would give this book a 4/5. It was very interesting but incredibly difficult. I would recommend it to any college student interested in learning about Communism, or just an interesting person from Kansas (because there seems to be a lack of those.)