In 1998, Tom Brokaw published a collection of oral histories entitled "The Greatest Generation." His book recounted the struggles of American youth against the threats of the Great Depression, fascism and World War II. Brokaws book, like many popular histories of this era, failed to address the integral role of young communists in these struggles. Indeed, a certain "historical amnesia" exists in the historical memory of both Britain and the United States concerning these youth. Throughout the 1930s young communists, later dubbed "premature anti-fascists," struggled in their classrooms,...