Role-modeling socialist behaviour: the life and letters of Isaac Rab - Karla Rab

A very enjoyable book

Is this being distributed by the SPGB or otherwise available elsewhere??

Where did the mobi and epub versions of this go? It looks like removed them when you added the PDF, with this deliberate?

There was a session about him at last year's NYC anarchist book fair.

I just found out that Karla, the author of this book and Isaac Rab's granddaughter, died on 9/15/2017.

SamEmm

I just found out that Karla, the author of this book and Isaac Rab's granddaughter, died on 9/15/2017.

Sorry to hear.

Sad news.

I had the good fortune to meet Karla and her partner, Ron, a couple of times when I lived in New York. She was a lovely person. Her biography of her grandfather, Isaac Rab, is a fine legacy to both her grandfather and to Karla herself.

Eventually got round to reading this as whilst I never made it to North America my past association with the SPGB/WSM (and reading of the Western Socialist) made me curious enough to want to compare my more extensive knowledge of the SPGB history and personalities to that of the USA WSP and Canadian SP. The book is written with an understandable great warmth and affection for Rab and other of the early members and their persistence in promoting basic socialist understanding mostly against the odds, especially following the second world war. The open-mindedness of Rab in particular towards others he regarded as genuine socialists but with different views does come across well and it was interesting to hear about the close family relationships with Paul Mattick senior and junior, (although there was still expressed the usual disdain for the old SLP). I was surprised to note a brief mention of our old 'Libertarian Communism' discussion journal and to an old comrade from Holland in the letters. In passing also note there is no reference to the expulsion from the mainstream SPGB of several of the more notable SPGB members that visited the WSP over the years even though it does cover some of the more arcane organisational differences of opinion within the WSP itself.
That said this history of the WSP, over and above the personal history of Rab, was noticeable for the almost complete absence of reference to any significant or everyday aspects of the practical class struggle going on all around them over that extended period (except for a brief dismissive reference to the 'Civil Rights' movement) which says much about that organisation's and the author's simplified understanding of the relationship between class struggle and the potential for social change, such that it comes across largely as a history of abstract ideas divorced from real world struggles. To the outside observer there wasn't really much noticeable difference in the activity of the Workers Socialist Party from it's predecessor in the Socialist Education Society. In that sense they displayed much the same strengths and weaknesses of their larger companion in the SPGB.

"Good point but a more contextual history from WSPUS is in the pipeline."

Is there? Who's writing it?