Dyson noted that a chance meeting of several historians interested in various aspects of American Communism in which he participated at the 1980 Upper Midwest History Conference in Duluth, Minnesota had yielded productive discussion and he suggested that a new national organization of individuals interested in such matters might provide a forum for a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas.
The group would additionally publish information about research in progress, it was hoped, as well as aid in the search for obscure sources — no simple task in the days before easily searchable library catalogs via the internet.
Further, organizers sought a place to where one might take esoteric questions about little-known aspects of American communism and hope to find an answer.
[3] No organizational dues were set for 1982, but a $5 membership fee was levied for 1983, with proceeds to pay for production of the newsletter, projected to be a quarterly.
The constitution of HOAC lists as the organization's objective "To stimulate interest in, promote the study of, and facilitate research and publication on the history of American Communism.
Throughout its first 20 years of existence, HOAC's primary function related to its compilation and publication of a listing of "Writings on the History of American Communism."
Begun by John Haynes in 1982, this task was later taken over by Peter Filardo, an archivist at Tamiment Library, located at New York University.
Haynes converted this material and further additions to digital form in the 1990s, a listing which he continues to maintain on his personal website into the 21st Century.
The organization also fostered the exchange of primary source materials gathered from the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Freedom of Information Act.
American Communist History is a scholarly journal with the worthiness of submitted articles anonymously juried by recognized experts in the field prior to their acceptance for publication.
At the time of the new journal's launch, HOAC Editor John Haynes defined the purpose of the new publication: American Communist History will be the impartial, leading journal for scholarship about the history of the Communist Party in the United States and its social, political, economic and cultural impact on its members, on its opponents, and the public at large.
The journal will deal with the American party and with the various outside influences which have dealt with its representation, with the controversial folklore that has been engendered about it, and with the many differing views about its antecedents, and its diverse opponents on the Left and Right.