A good book review is a historian’s best friend. In that spirit, The Life of a Historian offers our review of…
Purcell, Aaron D. White Collar Radicals: TVA’s Knoxville Fifteen, the New Deal, and the McCarthy Era. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2009.
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The Life of the Historian:
A Book Review of Aaron Purcell’s
White Collar Radicals:
TVA’s Knoxville Fifteen, the New Deal, and the McCarthy Era
In White Collar Radicals, Purcell examines the political actions of fifteen individuals during their time with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and how their brief period together continued to affect their lives in the proceeding decades. The ‘Knoxville Fifteen,’ as Purcell labels them, were young, politically and socially like-minded entry-level employees who happened to work together at the TVA during its nascent years of the mid-1930s.[1] Their shared interests and societal views—as well as their close proximity as professional colleagues—led to their involvement with one another as activists, friends, roommates, and sometimes lovers. The Knoxville Fifteen’s flirtation, and eventual membership for most, with the local Communist Party and their encouragement of social movements attracted the attention of the federal government and law enforcement agencies. Together, they supported the anti-fascist forces of the Spanish Civil War, advocated civil rights for African Americans, and participated in local labor issues, strikes, and movements as leaders of the TVA’s white-collar union. Although the Knoxville Fifteen avoided national notoriety and legal prosecution during their employment with TVA, the political climate ushered in by World War II and the subsequent Cold War facilitated multiple federal inquiries into their past that adversely affected their lives decades later.
Purcell’s exploration into the lives and experiences of the Knoxville Fifteen illuminates the pervasiveness of anti-communism hysteria, and the extent of federal intrusion and policing of the lives of American citizens. Purcell argues that the story of Knoxville Fifteen provides a cautionary tale “into modern-day investigations of those suspected of un-American activities.”[2] According to Purcell, the Knoxville Fifteen was “a small group of largely harmless ‘New Dealers.’”[3] Except for a few of the fifteen, their political actions and rhetoric proved limited to the Knoxville area and their time with the TVA. In comparison, as Purcell illustrates, the federal response wildly exaggerated their influence and threat to America resulting in an asymmetrical and repeated assault on their civil liberties.
Purcell effectively employs a wide array of primary and secondary sources to weave his narrative together. His sources include FBI and government files and documents, transcripts of public hearings, Howard Bridgman’s diary, personal interviews with two of the Knoxville Fifteen—Henry Hart and Mabel Abercrombie, national and local newspapers, and political periodicals, newsletters, and pamphlets. Coupled with his vast secondary literature, his extensive source material adequately reinforces his approach of placing the story of the Knoxville Fifteen within the broader history and context of the political climate of the TVA and the New Deal, World War II, and the Cold War. Purcell’s ability to continuously shift the camera of focus from actor to actor and frequently oscillate between vantage points is the strength of his work. It is only possible because of his thorough research and use of the source material. This approach underscores the hysteria of anti-communism in American society and institutions. The Red Scare enabled gross government overreach and provided the justification for the development of a perpetual cycle of allegations—often based on dubious evidence and unfounded rumors—and hearings against the Knoxville Fifteen.
However, this approach also creates a weakness due to the presentation and formatting of the book, and the magnitude of its scope. Purcell structures his narrative chronologically in three parts, each touching on a specific period of their lives. Problems of formatting and presentation appear most prevalent and concerning in “Part One: Visions”. While Purcell excels at describing the early years of the TVA, the New Deal, and the political climate of the 1930s, he inserts the biographical information and actions of the Knoxville Fifteen as distinct and separately written sections. This style choice detaches their stories from one another and from the broader history. Although it should be noted, such a presentation of the Knoxville Fifteen works well in “Part Three: Aftermath” when Purcell traces their respective lives following the conviction and murder of one of their own, William Remington. In “Part Two: Realities”, Purcell avoids this problem by wonderfully weaving the narrative between the voices and actions of the Knoxville Fifteen with other actors and within multiple settings.
Purcell simply tackles too many themes and topics with his focus on fifteen individuals. From the TVA and New Deal to the FBI’s investigation into the Knoxville Fifteen’s affiliations with the local Communist Party during the 1930s to Dies Committee hearings to the Senate confirmation hearings of David Lilienthal and Gordon Clapp to Remington’s trial and conviction, Purcell illustrates the pervasiveness and vindictiveness of politicians and law enforcement agencies in their enforcement of anti-communist policies. In general, Purcell is successful in his broader aims of highlighting the causes and effects of anti-communism hysteria on the minor characters of history while situating the voices and lives of these folks within the context of the changing political culture and climate of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. However, Purcell’s work would have benefitted from a narrower cast of individuals. If Purcell chose to only focus only on Remington and Hart, much of the book would have remained the same sans the constant need to stress the roles of the others. Furthermore, Purcell’s specific use of Lilienthal to elaborate on the political and cultural environment of the TVA and as a catalyst for 1940s Dies Committee hearings on the Knoxville Fifteen belies the significance of his role to the aims of his book. Although the Knoxville Fifteen all have interesting and deserving stories, this work would have offered more with less.
Purcell’s White Collar Radicals opens new avenues of historical inquiry to explore. Knoxville Fifteen member Pat Todd offers historians of Cold War culture and the Red Scare a case study on the adverse psychological effects of allegations and accusations of un-American sympathies and communist ties. Purcell’s work also suggests that a historical comparison and analyses of USSR and American state intrusion and policing of their citizens during the Cold War could prove potentially rewarding. Moreover, his approach is an ideal template for historians interested in writing holistic narratives that fluidly knit the lives of minor actors together within the context of the broader social, cultural, and political environments at the local, national, and international levels to demonstrate how profoundly society is interwoven with a myriad of influences.
[1] Aaron Purcell coined the nomenclature the Knoxville Fifteen specifically for the purposes of this work. In his own words, “I titled this core group the ‘Knoxville Fifteen.’ I did not set out to create the Knoxville Fifteen or any numbered group; instead, countless official reports, testimony, and interview transcripts guided me to a collection of like-minded individuals with similar experiences. Their identity as the Knoxville Fifteen is driven by available evidence and is a reliable way to describe their collective experiences while with TVA and beyond.” The Fifteen include Mabel Abercrombie, Forrest Benson, Bernard ‘Buck’ Borah, Howard Bridgman, Katherine ‘Kit’ Buckles, Christine Eversole, John Frantz, Howard Frazier, Henry Hart, David Stone Martin, William Remington, Muriel Speare, Merwin ‘Pat’ Todd, Elizabeth Winston, and Burton Zien. See Purcell, White Collar Radicals: TVA’s Knoxville Fifteen, the New Deal, and the McCarthy Era (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2009), xxiii-xxiv.
[2] Purcell, White Collar Radicals, 190.
[3] Ibid., xxv.