In 1935, at the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern, Georgi Dimitrov announced that the primary task of Communists everywhere was to create popular fronts to oppose fascism, or what he called “the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary . . . elements of finance capital.” Faithful comrades would now work with any individual or group willing to defend democracy, “bourgeois” though they and it might be. These new people’s fronts could include all sorts of small businesses and unions, churches and synagogues, liberal and moderate newspapers, and professional organizations — even elected leaders like President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In the United States, the Communist Party (CPUSA) embraced the Popular Front strategy with a zeal unmatched by its comrades in other nations. The new approach allowed party members and their ideological compatriots to make America’s ideals and culture their own. For men and women who had either been raised in another country or were members of an ethnic or racial minority, the Popular Front was an opportunity to abandon a style of anti-nationalist rebellion that had deepened their alienation from most citizens.

The party’s newfound patriotism did result in several flights of unintentionally hilarious rhetoric. In 1937, the Young Communist League chided the Daughters of the American Revolution for neglecting to celebrate the anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride. Hundreds of demonstrators marched up Broadway behind a sign that read, “The DAR Forgets but the YCL Remembers.”