It Had to Be Revolution: Memoirs of an American Radical

Although Shipman (1895-1989) was not a leader of the American left, his exceptionally vivid memoir recalls an unusual life and evokes the spirit of early 20th-century radicalism. Born Charles Phillips in New York City, he discovered socialism while a student at Columbia University. He first attracted attention in 1918, when he resisted induction into the Army. Subsequently, he fled to Mexico, where, using one of a series of pseudonyms, he met the Soviet ambassador Michael Borodin. In 1920, he attended the Second Congress of the Communist International in Moscow and was impressed by the charismatic Lenin. His path eventually led to Chicago, where as Manuel Gomez, he joined the then-clandestine Communist Party. By 1929 he was in New York City again, as Charles Shipman, a secretly anti-capitalist financial journalist (his ideology prompted him to discourage investment in stocks; ironically, his pre-crash negativism was eventually to give him a reputation for astuteness). Although he was expelled from the Party in 1932, he was not disillusioned until the Moscow show trials of 1938. He embarked upon a successful business career and, even during the McCarthy era, his Communist past only rarely intruded. Photos. (June)