The American Communists had thrived as champions of domestic reform.

During World War I Browder served time in federal prison as a conscientious objector to conscription and the war. Following the removal of Jay Lovestone as head of the CPUSA in 1929 and a short interregnum during which the party was headed by former Lovestone factional associate Max Bedacht Browder was made General Secretary of the CPUSA. Browder is best remembered as the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s.