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The Surprisingly Socialist History of America

 

            Updated
            
              by Ellie Alcorn  on April 17, 2024.  First created January 27, 2023.
 
 
 
 
 
  
Lincoln and Marx
 
The transatlantic convergence of two revolutionaries.
 
by  Robin Blackburn  via  Jacobin 

              This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of
              its articles.
            
  on  August 28, 2012 
  
 
The 16th President, his pro-labor leanings, and Marx's admiration for his work to end slavery.
 
Workers working on ruins after the US Civil War, circa 1865. 
 
  
The Abolitionist Legacy of the Civil War Belongs to the Left
 
The US Civil War was a revolutionary upheaval that crushed slavery and stoked hopes of a broader emancipation against the rule of property.
 
by  Dale Kretz  via  Jacobin 

              This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of
              its articles.
            
  on  April 6, 2022 
  
 
A "red Civil War" and its place in the radical politics of the left at the turn of the 20th century.
 
Eugene Debs speaking to a crowd. 
 
  
A Brief History of American Socialism
 
A look at socialism’s far-reaching influence on American thought.
 
by  Michael Kazin  via  Literary  Hub  on  January 5, 2023 
  
 
How socialism is as American as Baseball or Apple Pie.
 
 
 
  
Fighting Words
 
No, “liberal” and “progressive” aren’t synonyms. They have completely different histories—and the differences matter.
 
by  Sean Wilentz  via  Democracy Journal  on  March 20, 2018 
  
 
By lumping "progressives" and "liberals" together we forget  the anti-capitalist tendencies of the left.
 
 
 
  
Socialism and the Liberal Imagination
 
How do socialist demands become liberal common sense? The history of the New Deal offers a useful lesson.
 
by  Mason B. Williams  via  Dissent  on  August 8, 2018 
  
 
The New Deal was intended to save capitalism from collapse and revolution. To do so it approprated the policy ideas of the socialists it sought to minimize.
 
Black and white photo of Eugene V. Debs addressing a crowd at the Hippodrome Theatre, New York City. 
 
  
Socialists on the Knife-Edge
 
American Democratic Socialism has deep roots in the very “American” values it is accused of undermining.
 
by  Hari Kunzru  via  New York Review of Books 

              This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of
              its articles.
            
  on  July 28, 2022 
  
 
The long history of American Socialism and its ideological roots in our nation's founding values.
 
Photograph of author Mike Davis. 
 
  
Mike Davis Revisits His 1986 Labor History Classic, Prisoners of the American Dream
 
The late socialist writer's first book was a deep exploration of how the US labor movement became so weakened.
 
by  Mike Davis, Daniel Denvir  via  Jacobin 

              This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of
              its articles.
            
  on  October 31, 2022 
  
 
How socialism failed to take-off in the fertal soil of American capitalism and class division.
 
Black and white photo of Eugene Debs being released from an Atlanta federal prison on Christmas Day, 1921. 
 
  
The American Socialism That Might Have Been
 
Despite their minority status, the Socialists had been a significant force in American politics before patriotic war hysteria brought on an era of repression.
 
by  Adam Hochschild  via  The Nation 

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              its articles.
            
  on  October 12, 2022 
  
 
While socialism has never captured the hearts or minds of the American masses, their ideas have played a fundamental role in the evolution our limited welfare state.
 
The Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs addressing a crowd, circa 1910. 
 
  
How World War I Crushed the American Left
 
A new book documents a period of thriving radical groups and their devastating suppression.
 
by  Joanna Scutts  via  The New Republic 

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              its articles.
            
  on  October 18, 2022 
  
 
How Woodrow Wilson decimated the ascendant socalists with repressive laws in the name of supporting the war effort.
 
Industrial Workers of the World Labor Day Picnic, Oakland, California, 1939. 
 
  
Lessons from the Wobblies for Labor Activism Today
 
Despite their failure to achieve their ultimate goal, the IWW and its resilient members can be examples for the resurgent unions of today.
 
by  Ahmed White  via  University Of California Press Blog  on  December 19, 2022 
  
 
Although the IWW never achived their ultimate goal of overthrowing the capitalist state, their efforts to support the American worker are worthy of examination.
 
Eugene Debs in a suit 
 
  
Eugene Debs Believed in Socialism Because He Believed in Democracy
 
Eugene Debs’s unswerving commitment to democracy and internationalism was born out of his revulsion at the tyranny of industrial capitalism.
 
by  Shawn Gude  via  Jacobin 

              This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of
              its articles.
            
  on  September 2, 2020 
  
 
How America's most famous socialist was a democratic true-believer at heart.
 
UAW strikers in the Fisher body plant in Flint, Michigan 1937 
 
  
The Socialist Party in New Deal–Era America
 
The 1930s Socialist Party is often seen as a marginal force, but its successes laid the groundwork for the next generation of organizing.
 
by  Shawn Gude, Jake Altman  via  Jacobin 

              This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of
              its articles.
            
  on  October 1, 2019 
  
 
Apart from their influence on the policies of FDR's New Deal, American socialists significantly contributed to the process of rebuilding in the wake of capitalism's greatest failure to date.
 
 
 
  
America’s Missing Labor Party
 
The history of labor strikes shows that, in order to achieve lasting success, workers need to capture political power.
 
by  David Sessions  via  The New Republic 

              This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of
              its articles.
            
  on  October 2, 2018 
  
 
Despite present appearences, American Unions once dominated industry with the political support of predominantly Democratic administrations.
 
 
 
  
When Economists Took Socialism Seriously
 
If there’s one thing worth taking away from the new White House report on socialism, it’s that economics is a political argument.
 
by  Tim Barker  via  Dissent  on  October 25, 2018 
  
 
While socialist economic theory is largely maligned or forgetten in the policies of the American Government, this hasn't always been the case.
 
Eugene Debs delivering a speech in 1912. 
 
  
An American History of the Socialist Idea
 
The American socialism movement's open participation in and with the broad democratic left benefits the socialist cause.
 
by  Harold Meyerson  via  Dissent  on  April 4, 2022 
  
 
A brief hisory of the American socialist "movement" and its frequent intersections with the moderate democrats and racial equity activists in its day.
 
Henry Wallace. 
 
  
The Past and Future of the Left in the Democratic Party
 
Centrist Democrats who blamed the left for election losses would do well to remember the people who have fought for and shaped the party’s history.
 
by  Michael Brenes, Michael Koncewicz  via  The Nation 

              This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of
              its articles.
            
  on  December 9, 2020 
  
 
While the centrist wing of the Democratic Party has ruled the national party since the victory of Bill Clinton, the history of the party is far more radical than the centrists let on.
 
 
 
  
Marx in the United States
 
A conversation with the author of a forthcoming book about the twists and turns of Marx's legacy in America.
 
by  Andrew Hartman, Magnus Møller Ziegler, Tobias Dias  via  Society for U.S. Intellectual History  on  October 4, 2017 
  
 
A conversation about Marxist economics and political theory, and their long history of influencing thought within the United States.
           
   
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