This book documents communists’ attempts, successful and otherwise, to overcome their isolation and to connect with the major social and political movements of the twentieth century. Communist parties in Britain and the Netherlands emerged from the Second World War expecting to play a significant role in post-war society, due to their domestic anti-fascist activities and to the part played by the Soviet Union in defeating fascism. The Cold War shattered these hopes, and isolated communist parties and their members. By analysing the accounts of communist children, Weesjes highlights their struggle to establish communities and define their identities within the specific cultural, social, and political frameworks of the Cold War period and beyond.

Elke Weesjes is a visiting research fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, and an adjunct assistant professor at the City University of New York in Brooklyn, where she teaches courses in modern European and U.S. history, and women’s/gender studies.

Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: Cradle Communists and Oral History
2. Under the Party’s Wing – Communist Youth Organisations 1920-1956
3. Out of the Shadows – Communist Youth Organisations 1957-1968
4. Fragmentation and Demise – Communist Youth Organisations 1969-1991
5. From Heroes to Villains
6. Private Spheres – Communist Home Life
7. Public Speres – Neighbourhood, School and Work
8. Epilogue – Looking Back
Afterword
List of Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index