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Library of Social History collection
91004
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Title: Library of Social History collection
Date (inclusive): 1894-2000
Collection Number: 91004
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
307 manuscript boxes, 2 card file boxes, 1 oversize boxes
(158.2 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Serial issues, pamphlets, leaflets, internal bulletins, other internal documents, and electoral and convention material, issued
by Trotskyist groups throughout the world, and especially in the United States, Latin America and Western Europe, and including
some materials issued by non-Trotskyist left-wing groups; speeches and writings by Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders, and
printed matter relating to Cuba, with indexes thereto; speeches and writings by Nicaraguan Sandinista leaders; and public
and internal issuances of the New Jewel Movement of Grenada and its leaders, and printed and other material relating to the
movement and its overthrow. Collected by the Library of Social History (New York City), an affiliate of the Socialist Workers
Party of the United States. Does not include issuances of the Socialist Workers Party.
Creator:
Library of Social History (Location of meeting: New York, N.Y.)
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives acquired holdings of the Library of Social History, New York City, in 1991. A register
to the collection was prepared in 2000 and remains the principal overall description of and finding aid to the collection.
Since its preparation additional shipments of material have been received.
[Identification of item], Library of Social History collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library
& Archives.
The Library of Social History Collection, as its name indicates, was originally brought together by the Library of Social
History in New York City. An affiliate of the Socialist Workers Party, the Library of Social History gradually assembled and
maintained the collection over a period of decades prior to its acquisition by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in
1991.
Materials within the Library of Social History Collection fall naturally into four distinct series. By far the largest of
these, constituting three-fourths of the entire collection, is the Fourth International Series. This consists of issuances
of national sections of the Fourth International from all parts of the world and may well be the most comprehensive body of
such material in existence. Issuances include internal bulletins, internal circulated documents, short serial runs (many serial
titles existed for only a few issues or even a single issue), pamphlets, leaflets, and other ephemeral publications. Long
serial runs have been transferred to the Hoover Institution Library. The series is arranged alphabetically by country of origin,
and thereunder alphabetically by issuing organization. A multiplicity of issuing organizations will be noted in the cases
of many countries. Simple name changes, reorganizations following upon splits or mergers, existence of organizations in different
time periods, amicable coexistence of related organizations (e.g., adult and youth parties), and hostile coexistence of rival
organizations, are all factors contributing to this proliferation of names. Materials are listed under the name of the issuing
organization at the time of issuance. The complexity of organizational histories has prohibited any attempt at cross-referencing
names of organizations. Researchers who require assistance in this regard may find Robert J. Alexander,
International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement (Durham, N.C., 1991), a useful resource. While the great bulk of material in the collection stems from organizations formally
affiliated to the Fourth International or otherwise Trotskyist-derived, there is a certain amount of material issued by left-wing
organizations outside the Trotskyist heritage, or, rarely, by organizations altogether outside left-wing or socialist movements.
Any material that cannot be meaningfully assigned to an issuing organization has been placed at the end of the listings for
the country in question. Material on the United States does not include issuances of the Socialist Workers Party, which was
for decades the American fraternal party of the Fourth International, or of its predecessors or affiliates. (For this, see
the separate Socialist Workers Party Records in the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, and holdings of the Hoover Institution
Library.) United States materials are nevertheless voluminous, including issuances of rival organizations, materials on the
trade-union, unemployed and women's movements, and a large number of Communist Party pamphlets.
The other three series of the Library of Social History Collection are thematically related. The Cuban Revolutionary Government
Series is devoted to speeches and writings of leaders of the revolutionary government that came to power in Cuba in 1959 under
the aegis of the Movimiento Revolucionario 26 de Julio. The Nicaraguan Revolutionary Government Series covers speeches and
writings of leaders of the Frente Sandinista de Liberació n Nacional revolutionary government of 1979 to 1990 in Nicaragua.
The Grenadian Revolutionary Government Series covers speeches and writings of leaders of the New Jewel Movement revolutionary
government of 1979 to 1983 in Grenada. As might be expected in light of the durability of its subject, the Cuban Revolutionary
Government Series is much the largest of these three. Speeches and writings of Fidel Castro through 1991 alone account for
more than 30 manuscript boxes. Arrangement of all three series is parallel. Within each series materials are listed alphabetically
by name of individual revolutionary leader and thereunder in chronological order. Materials are printed in most cases, but
derived from such diverse sources as to render the aggregate unique and its duplication impracticable. At the end of each
series are materials not attributable to a single leader. Wherever possible these are listed alphabetically by issuing agency.
The Grenadian Revolutionary Government Series also includes a microfiche set of Grenadian documents captured by U.S. armed
forces.
All materials in the collection relating to Cuba, Nicaragua and Grenada are concentrated in the last three series. Consequently
there are no entries for these countries in the Fourth International Series. A modest amount of material on Fourth International
affiliates in Cuba and Nicaragua may be found in the Cuban and Nicaraguan Revolutionary Government Series respectively.
Series' beginning with the second Nicaraguan Revolutionary Government Series, which is a continuation of the series of the
same name in the main body of the collection, are part of the first increment of materials received. The second Nicaraguan
Revolutionary Government series consists of issuances of and materials about the Frente Sandinista de Liberació n Nacional
(FSLN) revolutionary government of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990. Most of this material is printed or near-print but is derived
from such diverse sources as to make it a uniquely valuable documentary resource. It includes documentation on the origins
and early factional struggles within the FSLN prior to the revolution of 1979; writings of and biographical materials about
the FSLN founder Carlos Fonseca Amador; statutes, official reports and statistics documenting FSLN governmental programs;
international assessments of the government's performance (mainly from academic journals and from left-wing theoretical journals);
and documentation of the decline and fall of the FSLN government. It also includes many speeches, statements and interviews
of FSLN government leaders, notably Daniel Ortega (president), Sergio Ramírez (vice president), Tomás Borge (minister of the
interior), Humberto Ortega (minister of defense), Ernesto Cardenal (minister of culture), Henry Ruíz (minister of planning),
Jaime Wheelock (minister of agriculture and agrarian reform), Luís Carrió n (deputy minister of the interior), Bayardo Arce,
and Victor Tirado.
The General Subject File consists of material on a variety of topics relevant to international twentieth-century revolutionary
movements. These include the Fourth International and its sections in various countries; Soviet anti-Trotskyism and political
trials; social legislation in the Soviet Union; the Soviet-Yugoslav breach; the revolutionary governments of Cuba and Grenada;
and revolutionary struggle in South Africa. The material consists mostly of pamphlets and other printed items, but there is
also noteworthy unpublished material. This includes academic dissertations and other typescript studies; a multi-volume collection
of writings by Ernesto Guevara, typeset but apparently unpublished; and a multi-volume documentary history of revolutionary
movements in South Africa, likewise typeset but unpublished.
A series of Monographs contains substantial printed volumes on similar subjects. Other books and serial runs have been incorporated
into the holdings of the Hoover Institution Library.
A small Audiovisual File includes miscellaneous items, notably a number of mounted photographs of Barcelona during the Spanish
Civil War. There is also a small Oversize File.
General Subject File II and Monographs II are part of the second set of incremental materials received. They primarily concern
Cuba and notably include a collection of writings by Ché Guevara.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Socialism
Cuba -- Politics and government -- 1990-
Communism -- United States
Communism
Cuba -- Politics and government -- 1959-1990
Cuba -- History -- 1959-1990
Socialism -- United States
Socialism -- Europe
Communism -- Latin America
Communism -- Europe
Nicaragua -- Politics and government -- 1979-1990
Socialism -- Latin America
Cuba -- History -- 1990-
Grenada -- Politics and government -- 1974-1983
Castro, Fidel, 1926-2016
Fourth International
New Jewel Movement (Grenada)
Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional