Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism

James Laxer

Sep 2009 · D & M Publishers

About this ebook

In this engrossing memoir of his childhood in the 1940s and 1950s, James Laxer tells an unusual story. During his growing-up years, both of his parents were dedicated members of the Communist Party. From an early age, Laxer was collecting signatures on ban-the-bomb petitions, delivering Party flyers door to door and attending eccentric left-wing Camp Naivelt.

Dramatic, humorous and full of period detail, Red Diaper Baby offers a rare look at the McCarthy years through the eyes of a child. It also illuminates Laxer’s evolution into one of Canada’s leading left-wing intellectuals.

About the author

Author of fifteen previous books, James Laxer is a professor of political science at York University in Toronto. He is well known for his frequent media appearances and newspaper columns. In 1988, he won a Gemini award for his work on Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada, a series of NFB films. Long active on the left, Laxer was a leader of the Waffle Movement in the NDP, and in 1971, he ran second to David Lewis for the national leadership of the party. His most recent book is The Border: Canada, the US and the Dispatches from the 49th Parallel. A devoted runner, he takes to the road six days a week.