At a conference for socialist elected officials, the task is to ‘represent the movement of the future in the movement of the present.’
Michael Kazin
Michael Kazin teaches history at Georgetown University and is emeritus co-editor of Dissent. His most recent book is What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party (paperback, 2023).
Posted inColumns
Discovering a Better Left
About 40 years ago, I read a book by the historian-activist James Weinstein, and my political outlook changed utterly, and for good. Its title, The Decline of Socialism in America, 1912-1925, doesn’t sound like a catalyst of hope, much less of personal transformation. But at the time, I was recovering from a feverish romance with […]
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The Sit-Down Strike Returns! Now What?
Chicago workers’ use of occupation to battle with their employer was successful, but labor needs more than the return of 1930s tactics to reclaim power.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Era of Hope and Sorrow
Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865–1900 by Jack Beatty (Knopf, 496 pages, $28.95) West From Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America After the Civil War by Heather Cox Richardson (Yale University Press, 416 pages, $30.00) Are we living through a “new Gilded Age”? Although the phrase calls up images of rococo mansions […]
Posted inFeatures
The Other Bryan
Imagine the ideal democratic nominee for president. He’s twice won election in Nebraska, one of the reddest of states, and is just as popular across the South and Midwest. He’s a charismatic, energetic orator. He’s also a stalwart progressive who has taken tough stands against corporate crime, to aid labor organizers, and to raise taxes […]
Posted inBooks
State of the Debate: The White Rage
Why has extremist violence exploded on the right? A historical look at the evolution of populist rage.
Posted inBooks
State of the Debate: The Other American Dilemma
Anthony Lukas’s last book is a powerful tale of what used to be “class warfare” in America — and a lesson about why so many people have had a hard time telling that story.
Posted inFeatures
Progress’s Pilgrim
Once upon a time, Henry Wallace was a liberal hero. At the dawn of the New Deal, the brilliant agronomist transformed the stodgy Agriculture Department (which his father, a Republican, headed a decade before) into the savior of the farm economy and a well-funded crusader for the scientific raising of crops and animals. In the […]