AUTHOR
Immersed In RED
Immersed in Red chronicles Mr. Shotwell’s exposure to Marxist ideology during his formative years, experiencing the irrationality of Soviet idealism in all aspects of daily life. While spending two years in the U.S. Peace Corps in Venezuela as a young adult, he came face to face with the corrosive nature of communism on a budding democracy, which challenged his long-held leftist beliefs. With a deep understanding born of first-hand experience, Mr. Shotwell takes us through his compelling story of his stepfather’s devotion to the anti-American Soviet cause; family friends entrenched in Soviet espionage; our nation’s current self-destructive move toward progressivism, atheism and socialism; and his own ultimate emergence from leftist ideology.
Further, he describes the evolution of economic Marxism into its current guise, namely Cultural Marxism, the early 20th century movement that resulted in the radical 60s and 70s, and which profoundly affects us to this day. The book displays an authority which can only be gained from having lived the lies and discovered the truth.
“Immersed in Red is a remarkably clear-eyed memoir of growing up in an American Communist family. Mike Shotwell’s stepfather, Orville Olson, a hidden Communist, was a key figure in liberal politics in Minnesota in the 1930s and 1940s. Shotwell provides his memories and reflections not only on Olson but also on numerous other hidden Communists, some nationally prominent, who worked with his stepfather over the decades. His portrait of the mental world of long-term, devoted Communists is thoroughly convincing. He combines his memories of his parents and their friends and associates with his own reflections on the nature of Communist ideology based on a very wide and intelligent reading of the literature and primary sources . . . Readers will learn much from this book.”
John Earl Haynes is the author of eleven scholarly books on American communism and Soviet espionage, most notably The Secret World of American Communism (Yale University Press, 1995)
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“Immersed in Red provides a fascinating picture of growing up in a communist household. Mike Shotwell vividly recalls his stepfather, Orville Olson's, rigid ideological world and the numerous friends who assisted Soviet intelligence agencies in their efforts to undermine American democracy.”
Harvey Klehr, co-author of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (Yale University Press, 2009)
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"Yes, Virginia, there are communists, and Mike Shotwell knows because he was surrounded by them while growing up. Immersed in Red offers not only a fascinating first-hand account of the dark psychology of men like his stepfather, Orville E. Olson, and his band of American plotters of subversion but also describes the whole constellation of their ideological progenitors and descendents. If you want to understand how embedded communism was in twentieth-century American life and how it still remains as an animating idea, read Mike’s book."
Mary Grabar, author of Debunking Howard Zinn and resident fellow, Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization
“This is a terrific read!! Immersed in Red is an intimate record of memories and meanings from one man’s very personal experience of the American left’s political insanity . . . These memoires confirm beyond all doubt the many evolutionary links from 20C Marxism, Stalinism and Leninism to the contemporary liberal-progressive movement in America . . . Mike Shotwell joins the ranks of other highly intelligent men who have grown up and grown out of the madness of Marxism in all its forms. As a bonus, his insightful commentaries are just as persuasive as his accounts . . .”
Dr. Lyle Rossiter, Jr., Psychiatrist and author of The Liberal Mind, The Psychological Causes of Political Madness (Free World Books, LLC, 2006)
