Socialism in America from the Shakers to the Third International

Most studies of socialism in America have regarded it as an alien movement imported from Europe. Here, for the first time, is a documented history that establishes it as an integral, and neglected, part of the American past. "America in the course of its history," compiler Albert Fried writes in his introduction, "called forth a variety of socialisms: communitarian, both religious and secular; Marxist; Anarcho-Communist; Christian. What animated these socialisms, what underlay their enormous differences--and why it is proper to bring them under the same rubric--was their conviction that each person's obligation to society as a whole was the absolute condition of his equality; that society was a brotherhood, not a collection of strangers drawn together by interest; that the individual derived his highest fulfillment from his solidarity with others, not from the pursuit of advantage and power. Whatever their persuasion, all Socialists regarded the opposition of self and society as a false one, reflecting the prevailing ethic of greed and domination. All envisioned an end, really a return to the beginning, in the form of either the perfect community, or the Kingdom of Heaven, or the cooperative commonwealth, each the realization of the promise of America." Fried details the history of these socialist movements, and supplements his account with generous selections, most of them never before reprinted, drawn from the astonishingly rich vein of native socialist literature--from the Shakers, the followers of Owen and Fourier, and the early German Marxists through Laurence Gronlund, Edward Bellamy, William Dean Howells, Eugene V. Debs, Morris Hillquit, "Big Bill" Haywood, and the first American apostles of twentieth century Communism.--From publisher description.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.