The Wretched of the Earth and Me

L. Richard Lund is a Ph.D. candidate in history at York University.

The scarcity of written sources with working-class origins often
frustrates advocates of “history from the bottom up.” With the
publication of Davis’s account of her experiences as a member of the
Communist Party during the interwar years in Toronto, that shortage has
been reduced.

Although Davis wrote this book recently, decades after having left the
party, she has still produced a relatively balanced narrative. In
looking back at her political activities with pride and only a few
regrets, she effectively conveys the great appeal communism had for her.
She portrays her colleagues as admirably committed to their struggle
against the inequities of the capitalist system, but, in retrospect,
suggests that they were too doctrinaire. In addition, she acknowledges
that the party lacked the resources and public support necessary to
achieve its goals.

This book, however, is much more than an inside look at the Canadian
Communist Party. Davis also provides insight into the immigrant’s
experience as she describes her early life in Roumania; her family’s
decision to leave in 1919; the arduous journey that took them to
Toronto; and the pressure she felt to conform in her new surroundings.
Depictions of several different jobs and periods of unemployment impart
a sense of the tremendous difficulties that confronted all workers
during this era. The author’s experiences also reveal the limitations
society placed on women in all aspects of their lives, and the
frustration many of them must have felt as a result. Somewhat
surprisingly, considering present historical opinion on the role of
Canadian women in leftist movements, she does not feel that sexist
attitudes confined her to traditionally female activities in the party.

Davis addresses all of these important historical issues in a short,
readable narrative that will appeal to a wide audience. For the general
reader, this book is an interesting complement to existing histories of
Canada in the 1920s and 1930s, and despite its brevity, it should also
prove to be a useful supplement to traditional sources for specialists
in working-class, immigration, political, or women’s history.