The Foner Connection

Submitted by Fred Frishman (United States), Apr 1, 2003 at 11:44

In 1940 or 1941, there was a program to help poor students attending college. I was one such student, who was attending the School of Business of CCNY. The uptown CCNY campus was a hot bed of radicals and Stalinists who could find excuses for Stalin's murders, which were known to the world from writings of those who had gone to the USSR and returned to publicize what went on in the Gulag.

I was assigned to a Prof. Foner, either at Columbia or CCNY. He was writing a paper on the US Civil War, and I copied NY Times articles from that time frame for him. Foner's political philosophy became clear, even to this 17 year old. I had been prepared by my father, who had fought the Communists in the Labor movement.

I must assume that the current Foner is the son or granson of the "elder". Then the apple does not fall far from the tree.

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