Howard Selsam

Original logo of International Publishers -- International Publishers, the Marxist oriented publishing house, that issued most of Howard Selsam's books.

Howard Selsam (born Howard Brillinger Selsam;[1][2] 28 June 1903 – 7 September 1970) was an American Marxist philosopher.[3]

Early life, education, and early career

Selsam was born on 28 June 1903 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His parents were John T. Selsam, a grocer, and his mother was Flora Emig Selsam.[3]

Selsam's education began in public schools in the Harrisburg area.[4] Later, Selsam received his undergraduate degree in 1924 from Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. From 1924 through 1927, he taught at the American University of Beirut.[3] Later, Selsam did graduate work in philosophy at Columbia University. At Columbia, he received both his MA (1928)[5] and PhD (1931). Selsam's master's thesis dealt with Baron d'Holbach,[1] and his dissertation concerned the English Hegelian philosopher Thomas Hill Green.[3]

After receiving his PhD, Selsam served as an instructor and later as an assistant professor at Brooklyn College. Active politically, Selsam participated in anti-war events on campus[6][7] and took "an active part in the social struggles of his day on the side of the communist movement."[3] Selsam's involvement is echoed in a contemporary newspaper article where Selsam is associated with Communist Party USA activities,[8][9] yet he was careful not to impose his political beliefs on students.[10] The political activities of Selsam and other Brooklyn College faculty members attracted the attention of governmental investigation. Despite their denials of Communist association to reporters,[10] Selsam and other faculty members later lost their teaching positions due to the Rapp-Coudert Committee investigations into Communist involvement in public education in New York State.[3][10] That Selsam refused to testify at the hearings[11][12] and faced contempt charges[13] likely made his resignation unavoidable.[14]

Seal of Brooklyn College -- Brooklyn College was Selsam's first employer after he received his Ph.D.

School for Democracy and Jefferson School of Social Science

Howard Selsam was one of the founders of the School for Democracy, an educational facility located at 13 Astor Place in New York[15] and associated with the Communist Party USA.[15][16][17][18][19][20]

Selsam served as the director of the Jefferson School of Social Science,[3][21] which was a "Marxist adult education facility"[22] whose faculty included "leftist academics dismissed from the City University of New York."[22] He held this position from 1944-1956.[23]

During Selsam's period of leadership, there was a steady flow of students at the Jefferson School. Even during the hey-day of Senator Joseph McCarthy's well publicized investigations into Communist subversion, the Jefferson School had an enrollment of 5,000 students each term.[24] Nevertheless, the school received criticism claiming that students simply received dogmatic instruction. For example, a Rutgers University economics professor, Alexander Balinky enrolled in the school and took some classes. Based on his experiences at the school, Balinky wrote a newspaper article and claimed that the students received political indoctrination at the school.[25]

Due to tensions caused by the Cold War, Anti-communism, and McCarthyism, the Jefferson School was subject to Congressional hearings and Selsam and others received summons to testify on several occasions.[17] For example, Selsam testified before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee on 8 April 1953, and, during Selsam's testimony, he often invoked the Fifth Amendment.[26]

Selsam and other school administrators denied that the school was a Communist front and fought against having it so officially labeled.[17][18][19][20] Given the political radicalism of the faculty members and the Marxist-oriented instruction at the school, and facing external political pressure against the school, declining student enrollment, and publication in the West of Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech—a speech which described in detail Stalin's crimes and political purges[18] —all of these factors ultimately forced the school administrators to close down the school in 1956.[17]

Khrushchev's secret speech and its aftermath caused considerable turmoil within the Communist Party USA,[18] and Selsam and other Jefferson School faculty members openly quit the Party in a joint letter published in the May 6, 1956 issue of the Daily Worker.[17]

Later years and death

With the closure of the Jefferson School of Social Science, Selsam devoted much of his time lecturing and writing.[3] He wrote a number of books on Marxist topics for International Publishers. Many of these books were republished in Canada, England, and India. In addition, Selsam's books were translated into a variety of languages, including Spanish, Arabic, Polish, Russian, German, Hungarian, and Japanese.[4]

Besides writing books, Selsam wrote articles and reviews for periodicals, including The New Masses, and Marxism Today. He worked closely and collaborated with his wife Millicent Selsam, a botanist and high school teacher[27] who was well known as an author of science books for young people.[3]

Besides writing for the The New Masses and Marxism Today, Selsam was an editorial board member for the Marxist journal Science & Society,[23][28] and he was a founder of the American Institute for Marxist Studies.[23]

Selsam died in New York on September 7, 1970. He was survived by his wife, Millicent Selsam.[3][27]

Partial bibliography of published works

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "The naturalism of Baron d'Holbach.". CLIO catalog record for Selsam thesis, Columbia University Libraries. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  2. ↑ "OCLC Worldcat Identities: Selsam, Howard Brillinger.". Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Struik, Dirk J. (September 1972). "Howard Selsam 1903-1970". Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 45: 225.
  4. 1 2 Anonymous (1965). "Chapter: About the author". In Selsam, Howard. Ethics and progress: New values in a revolutionary world. New York, New York: International Publishers.
  5. ↑ "Howard Selsam papers [ca. 1935]-1972.". Howard Selsam papers, Columbia University Libraries, Archival Collections. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  6. ↑ "Joins College in Peace Movement: To Teach Students Of War Dangers - College Anti-War Conference Is Scheduled for Next". Spotlight (Brooklyn, New York: Women's Division of Brooklyn College of the College of the City of New York). 14 December 1933. pp. 1, 4. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  7. ↑ "Support Movement for Anti-War Week: Faculty Encourages Protest Of Social Science Students; Call Strike For April". Spotlight (Brooklyn, New York: Women's Division of Brooklyn College of the College of the City of New York). 2 March 1934. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "Ban on Red Tutors Urged by Democrats: County Committee Votes Approval of Kelly's Move" (PDF). Brooklyn Eagle (Brooklyn, New York: Frank D. Schroth). 10 December 1940. p. 1. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  9. ↑ "Ban on Red Tutors Urged by Democrats: County Committee Votes Approval of Kelly's Move" (PDF). Brooklyn Eagle (Brooklyn, New York: Frank D. Schroth). 10 December 1940. p. 10. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 Heins, Marjorie (2013). "Chapter 3 Rapp-Coudert". Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purge. New York: New York University Press. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  11. ↑ INS (8 December 1940). "Refusal to Testify at Red Probe May Cost Posts". The Milwaukee Sentinel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Milwaukee Sentinel). Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  12. ↑ Associated Press (20 December 1940). "High Court Given College Red Case". The Milwaukee Journal (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Journal Company). p. 4. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  13. ↑ U.R. (6 June 1941). "Cite teachers for contempt in school probe:Seven refuses to testify in state inquiry; Accused of red leanings" (PDF). The Binghamton Press (Binghampton, New York: The Binghamton Press). p. 20. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  14. ↑ Feffer, Andrew (6 February 2013). "Review of Marjorie Heins’s "Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purge" (NYU, 2013)". History News Network (Fairfax, Virginia: The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University). Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  15. 1 2 Dodd, Bella V. (1954). "Chapter Eleven". School of Darkness. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  16. ↑ Gettleman, Marvin (7 October 2001). Lost World of U.S. Labor Education: Curricula at East and West Coast Community Schools, 1944-1957. Conference on New York City History. Graduate Center, City University of New York. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Gettleman, Marvin E. (2008). "Defending Left Pedagogy: U.S. Communist Schools Fight Back Against the SACB . . . and Lose (1953-1957)". Reconstruction (Reconstruction) 8 (1). Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  18. 1 2 3 4 North American Newspaper Alliance (15 November 1956). "Students Shun Reds' School: Enrollment at Lowest". The Milwaukee Journal (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Journal Company). p. 20. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  19. 1 2 Associated Press (31 December 1954). "Organizations to Fight Label". Spokane Daily Chronicle (Spokane, Washington: Chronicle Pub. Co.). p. 23. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  20. 1 2 "Witness Says New York School Run by Commies". St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, Florida: St. Petersburg Times). 26 November 1953. p. 3. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  21. ↑ Marv Gettleman, "Jefferson School of Social Science," in Mari Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, and Dan Georgakas (eds.), Encyclopedia of the American Left. First Edition. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1990; pp. 389-390.
  22. 1 2 Davidman, Joy (2009). King, Don W., ed. Out of My Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman. William B. Eerdmans Pub. p. 75. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  23. 1 2 3 "Howard Selsam.". The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979) Copyright 2010 The Gale Group. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  24. ↑ Brock, Peter (2007). "Dockside in Catania, Sicily, and I had just turned seventeen". Katz: Ben Israel: the early years. Minneapolis, MN: Mill City Press, Inc. p. 33. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  25. ↑ Balinky, Alexander (1 March 1956). "Microscope on Communism" (PDF). Westfield (N.J.) Leader (Westfield, N.J.: Westfield Leader Print. and Pub. Co.). p. 19. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  26. ↑ Selsam, Howard (1953). Testimony of Howard Selsam before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws. [Hearings on] Subversive Influence in the Educational Process. Part 7 : hearings before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Eighty-Third Congress, first session, on Apr. 7, 8, 1953. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  27. 1 2 "Science Author Selsam is Dead at 84". New York Daily News (New York, New York: New York Daily News). 15 October 1996. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  28. ↑ "Science and Society:The Editorial Board.". Science and Society. Retrieved 10 April 2014.

External links

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