U.S. Communist Party leader for almost 25 years, until his split with official party doctrine after World War II.

As a result of his opposition to the entrance of the U.S. into World War I, Browder was imprisoned in 1919–20. He became a member of the U.S. Communist Party in 1921, served as its general secretary from 1930 to 1944, and was the party's candidate for the U.S. presidency in 1936 and 1940. In the latter year he was sentenced to prison for 4 years for passport irregularities but was released after serving 14 months.

In 1944 Browder was removed from his position as party secretary for declaring that capitalism and socialism could peacefully coexist. He was expelled from the Communist Party in 1946 and three years later was named in “treason trials” in Budapest and Prague as originator of the heresy of “Browderism.”

Among his many published works are The People's Front (1938), War or Peace with Russia? (1947), and Marx and America (1958).