The Lives of Agnes SmedleyWas she a selfless political activist? A feminist heroine? A gifted writer who rose from poverty to become a leading journalist and author of the cult classic Daughter of Earth? A spy for the Soviet Union? Or all of these things? Drawing on fifteen years of intensive research and unprecedented access to previously unpublished documents, this vibrant book brings to life one of the twentieth century's most fascinating women. Ruth Price traces Agnes Smedley's unlikely trajectory from a small Missouri town to the coal country of Colorado; to Berkeley and Greenwich Village; to Berlin, Moscow, and China. Fueled by a fury at injustice, Smedley threw herself headlong into the crucial issues of the time, from Indian independence to birth control, women's rights, and the revolution in China. Her friends included such figures as Margaret Sanger, Langston Hughes, Emma Goldman, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mao Zedong, and many others. Perhaps most important, Price uncovers an astonishing truth: Smedley, long thought to be the unfair target of a Cold War smear campaign, was indeed guilty of the espionage charges leveled against her by General Douglas MacArthur and others. Smedley worked to foment armed revolution in India and gathered intelligence for the Soviet Union, seeing it as a bulwark against fascism. Price argues that Smedley acted out of a passionate idealism and that she exhibited a courage and compassion worthy of a renewed, if more complicated, admiration today. Epic in scope, painstakingly researched, and unflinchingly honest, The Lives of Agnes Smedley offers a stunning reappraisal of one of America's most controversial Leftists and a new look at the troubled historical terrain of the first half of the twentieth century. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 11 | |
2 Emergence as a Radical | 34 |
3 Indian Activism in Greenwich Village | 57 |
4 Moscow Beckons | 75 |
5 Love and Pain in Berlin | 100 |
6 Becoming a Writer | 121 |
7 Bend in the Road | 145 |
12 An Unruly Agent | 256 |
13 Mutiny in Sian | 280 |
14 Calamity Jane of the Chinese Revolution | 301 |
15 Selfless for the Cause | 321 |
16 Back in the USA | 347 |
17 The Cold War | 374 |
18 Exile | 396 |
Epilogue | 413 |
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activities agent Agnes Smedley Agnes wrote Agnes's American April August Battle Hymn Berlin birth control British Browder Charles Chatto Chiang Kai-shek China Chinese Communists Chu Teh Comintern Communist Party courtesy CPUSA Daughter of Earth December Edgar Snow Emma Goldman espionage February fight File Florence Becker Lennon foreign German Ghadr Ghadr Party Ghose Gibarti Ibid Indian revolutionaries intelligence International interview by author January Japanese July June Katherine Anne Porter knew leaders lived Madame Sun March Margaret Sanger military months Moscow movement Nanking National Nationalist never officials organization Ozaki Papers peasants police political Press radical recalled Red Army returned revolution Rewi Alley Richard Sorge Russian Shanghai Sian Smedley to Lennon Smedley to Sanger Smedley's Snow Papers Sonja Sorge's story Tarak Nath Das tion troops United Willi Muenzenberg Willoughby woman women workers write Yaddo Yenan York