This special issue of American Communist History marks a starting point in the use of the comparative approach to better understand Communism and anti-Communism in both Australia and the United States. The main scholarly outlet for historians of Australian Communism remains
the quarterly journal Labour History, which has been published continuously since 1962. It has made only two forays into comparative labor history— discussing Canada in 1996, and Great Britain in 2005. So this issue of American
Communist History marks a new development: it is not only this journal’s first comparative issue, but also the first to bring together Australian and American Communist history.