Webster's New World Law Dictionary Book

James P. Cannon's History of American Trotskyism manages to avoid being sterile, dry, or self-serving. It is the history of the heroic days of the American Trotskyists, and it holds a wealth of ideas and commentary for those of us who hold to that tradition.

History of American Trotskyism is not just history on the page; it is a guide to action. Cannon goes into the problems of a small group getting deeply involved in mass work, from the 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strikes to the defense of Leon Trotsky from Stalinist slander, and in so doing he lays out the principles of a Trotskyist party. In the reading, it quickly becomes evident why the Trotskyists in America went from a handful of expelled members of the Communist Party to the largest and most influential section of the Fourth International in the course of ten years.