The Communist, Paul Kengor
The Communist, Paul Kengor
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The Communist
Frank Marshall Davis: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mentor

Author: Paul Kengor

Narrator: Pete Larkin

Unabridged: 11 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/20/2012


Synopsis

In his memoir, Barack Obama omits the full name of his mentor, simply calling him "Frank." Now, the truth is out: Never has a figure as deeply troubling and controversial as Frank Marshall Davis had such an impact on the development of an American president.

Although other radical influences on Obama—from Jeremiah Wright to Bill Ayers—have been scrutinized, the public knows little about Davis, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA, cited by the Associated Press as an "important influence" on Obama, one whom he "looked to" not merely for "advice on living" but as a "father" figure.

While the Left has willingly dismissed Davis (with good reason), here are the indisputable, eye-opening facts: Frank Marshall Davis was a pro-Soviet, pro–Red China communist. His Communist Party USA card number, revealed in FBI files, was CP number 47544. He was a prototype of the loyal Soviet patriot, so radical that the FBI placed him on the federal government's Security Index. In the early 1950s, Davis opposed U.S. attempts to slow Stalin and Mao. He favored Red Army takeovers of Central and Eastern Europe, and communist control in Korea and Vietnam. Dutifully serving the cause, he edited and wrote for communist newspapers in both Chicago and Honolulu, courting contributors who were Soviet agents. In the 1970s, amid this dangerous political theater, Frank Marshall Davis came into Barack Obama's life.

Aided by access to explosive declassified FBI files, Soviet archives, and Davis's original newspaper columns, Paul Kengor explores how Obama sought out Davis and how Davis found in Obama an impressionable young man, one susceptible to Davis's worldview that opposed American policy and traditional values while praising communist regimes. Kengor sees remnants of this worldview in Obama's early life and even, ultimately, his presidency.

Kengor charts with definitive accuracy the progression of Davis's communist ideas from Chicago to Hawaii. He explores how certain elements of the Obama administration's agenda reflect Davis's columns advocating wealth redistribution, government stimulus for "public works projects," taxpayer-funding of universal health care, and nationalizing General Motors. Davis's writings excoriated the "tentacles of big business," blasted Wall Street and "greedy" millionaires, lambasted GOP tax cuts that "spare the rich," attacked "excess profits" and oil companies, and perceived the Catholic Church as an obstacle to his vision for the state—all the while echoing Davis's often repeated mantra for transformational and fundamental "change."

And yet, The Communist is not unsympathetic to Davis, revealing him as something of a victim, an African American who suffered devastating racial persecution in the Jim Crow era, steering this justly angered young man on a misguided political track. That Davis supported violent and heartless communist regimes over his own country is impossible to defend. That he was a source of inspiration to President Barack Obama is impossible to ignore.

Is Obama working to fulfill the dreams of Frank Marshall Davis? That question has been impossible to answer, since Davis's writings and relationship with Obama have either been deliberately obscured or dismissed as irrelevant. With Kengor's The Communist, Americans can finally weigh the evidence and decide for themselves.


About Paul Kengor

Paul Kengor, PhD, is the New York Times bestselling author of God and Ronald ­Reagan, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative, Dupes, The Communist, and other books. A professor of political science and the executive director of the Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College, he has written for a range of popular and scholarly publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, National Review, Political Science Quarterly, Christianity Today, the National Catholic Register, and the National Catholic Reporter. Kengor has appeared on Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, C-SPAN, and many other outlets. He and his family live in ­Pennsylvania.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Donald

This is a well-documented book with lots of notes and an extensive index. The primary purpose seems to be to tell the story of Frank Marshall Davis, who was a member of the CPUSA (Communist Party of the USA) and a Marxist. It is a narrative that follows Frank through his life, showed when he became a......more

Goodreads review by Michael

"The Communist" is well-documented, highly readable, and another Cold War insight with modern day relevance by one of the premier scholars, Dr. Paul Kengor, Professor at Grove City College and Director of the Center for Vision and Values. This, with "Dupes," firmly establishes Dr. Kengor as a top hi......more

Goodreads review by Al

Hard to believe the liberal strategy has been going on for the number of years begining before WWII.A real eye opener.I hope Mr.Kengor is looking out for drones!......more

Goodreads review by Chris

I read this book at the request of several ultra-conservative friends. How sad to see so much fear and ignorance in the 21st century. I found this book to be wholly un-American and un-Christian.......more

Goodreads review by Anthony

This is an excellent and interesting biography of Frank Marshall Davis, former President Obama's boyhood mentor in Hawaii. Marshall, having survived an attempted lynching as a boy and growing up under Jim Crow, became a devout Communist (officially a member of the CPUSA) and a disciple of Stalinism.......more