Michael Kazin. American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation.

Extract

More than a century ago, the German scholar Werner Sombart raised the question of why socialism had made comparatively little progress in the United States compared to Western Europe. He attributed it to the relative prosperity enjoyed by American workers, who supposedly dined on “reefs of roast beef and apple pie” (p. 112). Subsequently, many historians have detailed the internal divisions among radicals, whether on matters of principle, values, or tactics. Others have focused instead on how the Left has faced external opposition and oppression from government officials, the business community, and the popular media. And still others have emphasized the apathy—if not hostility—of the American public, particularly the white, Christian working class, which has overwhelmingly tended to accept the legitimacy of capitalism.

In American Dreamers, Michael Kazin directly and deftly addresses these issues by tracing the history of radicalism from the abolitionist movement of the antebellum era to the Occupy movement of the past decade. As a participant in the New Left of the 1960s and as a current editor of Dissent magazine, he writes with empathy and appreciation for the contributions of famous leaders like Eugene V. Debs, the beloved Socialist Party candidate, and obscure individuals like Lester Rodney, sports editor of the Daily Worker, who crusaded to integrate major league baseball. Kazin also has a keen eye for the surprising or telling detail, as when he notes that Ohio elected more socialists to public office than any other state and that more than ninety percent of Communist Party members in the 1920s were born abroad, which helps explain why the Left's political appeal was so limited in an era of ethnic tensions (pp. 119, 161).