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"[T]his impressive work...offers paths toward new and rich understandings of American history."―The New York Times Book Review
Why socialism has failed to play a significant role in the United States―the most developed capitalist industrial society and hence, ostensibly, fertile ground for socialism―has been a critical question of American history and political development. Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks "survey with subtlety and shrewd judgment the various explanations" (Wall Street Journal) for this phenomenon of American political exceptionalism. "Clearly written, intelligent, filled with new information" (Times Literary Supplement), this "splendidly convincing" (Michael Kazin, Georgetown University) work eschews conventional arguments about socialism's demise to present a fuller understanding of how multiple factors―political structure, American values, immigration, and the split between the Socialist party and mainstream unions―combined to seal socialism's fate. "In peak form, two master political sociologists offer a must-read synthesis."―Theda Skocpol, Harvard University
- Sales Rank: #739075 in Books
- Color: Green
- Published on: 2001-09-17
- Released on: 2013-01-23
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.20" h x 1.00" w x 5.50" l, .75 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 384 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Marx decreed in Capital that the most industrially advanced nation would usher the world into the bright dawn of socialism. But it didn't happen in America, the pinnacle of capitalist achievement. This broad but unambitious survey addresses one of the classic questions of American historiography: What accounts for the weakness of working-class radicalism in the U.S.? Preferring to restate the highlights of an admittedly worked-over literature on the subject rather than make significant new arguments of their own, Lipset (professor of public policy at George Mason University) and Marks (political science at UNC-Chapel Hill) present a "political sociology" of socialism's American flop. Lacking the feudal history that spurred Europe's early labor movements, the authors explain, American workers were "born conservatives," already enjoying social mobility and a relative prosperity. Moreover, strong constitutional limits on government power thwarted collectivists from the get-go and led homegrown radicals toward libertarian or anarchist camps. America's invincible two-party system made it all but impossible for a socialist candidate to succeed; since the Civil War, the authors point out, just nine non-major party candidates have won more than 5% of the national vote in any presidential election. What surprises there are in this book pop up in little-known annals of U.S. radicalism, such as the North Dakota Nonpartisan League, a strikingly successful contingent that in 1919 proposed a system of state ownership, only to be bitterly attacked by America's socialist party as an opportunistic rival. Green parties, the authors say, are the latest venue for utopian reform desires; again, the U.S. remains exceptional, as they point out, with no influential environmental party. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This history marks a great leap forward in scholarship about socialism in America, particularly on the American Socialist Party. Lipsett (public policy, George Mason Univ.) and Marks (political science, Univ. of North Carolina) contrast the brief rise and long decline of the American Socialist Party with the steady progress of social democratic and labor parties in other Western industrialized nations. The diversity of the American working class, American individualism, and the determination of Socialists not to ally with the labor movement or other political parties head the long list of reasons why "it didn't happen here." The broad scope of this work (it covers both the Socialist Party and its offshoot, the Communist Party), its historical detail, and its unsentimental analysis complement recent works on specific aspects of American socialism, e.g., Jim Bissett's Agrarian Socialism in America (Univ. of Oklahoma, 1999). Highly recommended for all academic and larger public libraries.
Duncan Stewart, State Historical Society of Iowa Lib., Iowa City
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Alexis de Tocqueville first used the term exceptionalism in the 1830s to explain America's uniqueness. Since then the term has been applied in many ways. Lipset is an internationally renown political scientist and sociologist and the author of nearly two dozen books. Harking back to de Tocqueville, he examined America's unique institutions in American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword (1996). One of Lipset's primary focuses in that book was to consider why socialism never took hold in the U.S. Now he and University of North Carolina political science professor Marks take another look at that question. Noting that the term American exceptionalism has been specifically applied to account for the "weakness of working-class radicalism in the United States," they summarize the main reasons that have been offered to explain the failure of socialism in the U.S. They then analyze how political institutions, labor unions, immigration trends and America's fragmented working class, the various strategies used by socialists, and state repression have hindered the socialist movement. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
Thorough analysis of complex subject, tho rather laborious
By Richard E. Hegner
The authors take on the perennial question of why a strong socialist movement never developed in the United States from virtually every imaginable angle--including American "exceptionalism," our electoral system, American federalism, the nature of unionism in the U.S., persection of leftists, etc. The emphasis here is on thorough--they have obviously reviewed all the major social science thought and research on this issue and added some original thinking of their own. (The footnotes are extensive, if not somewhat overwhelming.) They seem at their best when they approach the issues from the perspectives of political science and history, less so when they attempt sociological or economic explanations or attempt to draw lessons from international comparisons or multivariate analysis. (They frequently make comparisons with the experiences of such nations as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, which seem to verge on irrelevance in places.) The style of the book is that of a social science textbook--at once both its strength and its weakness, in that the book's theses are well developed but hammered home rather repetitively. The summaries at the end of each chapter are especially useful. The book is something of an effort to read, given the amount of detail offered, but it is a worthwhile and thought-provoking investment of time.
6 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
It Already Happened: How Socialism Succeeded in the U.S.
By Jedidiah Carosaari
Copiously footnoted and annotated, Marks and Lipset give a comprehensive description of why socialism failed in America. I learned a lot more about the history of the US, and the nature of socialism. Through comparison to the situation in other countries, the authors make a powerful case that it failed because of the mistakes within the Socialist Party- where it refused to compromise and work with other groups, including unions, in order to get closer to the desired goals. Marks and Lipset also show how the nature of the American political system makes it more difficult for minority parties- although not impossible. And they do a good job of proving that the nature of immigration and political repression weren't major forces keeping socialism from developing. Other groups faced the same hurdles and were able to develop, in America and abroad. What caused the downfall of socialism was a combination of factors, largely of their own making.
But a major problem with the work is that the terms are defined too narrowly. Socialism didn't fail. It has succeeded, and continues to grow in America. It is rather the Socialist Party which failed. Lipset and Marks continuously refer to socialism and then talk only of the one party- even differentiating socialism from the Communist Party, the Green Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, and the New Deal. While these are certainly separate groups, they all clearly also fall under the socialist umbrella. And then there are times when the definition is expanded, especially in the first chapter on the uniqueness of America politics, and socialism as an ideal is discussed, rather than just the party. One could easily imagine another book, with the same information, entitled "It Already Happened: How Socialism Succeeded in the United States"- if it is recognized that the ideas are larger than the party called "The Socialist Party".
It is also a shame that such short shrift is given to the African-American experience. Although there are passing references to the lack of socialist involvement in the African-American community, nowhere do Lipset and Marks really address this as a substantial failing on the part of the Socialist Party, or socialism in general. Although they show quite clearly that we are a relatively classist society, broken up on ethnic lines, we do have one huge significant class structure- stronger in the past, but still enduring. It just happens to also dovetail with ethnicity. African-Americans have been systematically debased throughout the history of our country. Following Marx and Engel's philosophy, this would have been the natural group to target in the pursuit of socialism. And though Marks and Lipset mention that socialists did not because of their own inherent racism, Marks and Lipset do not really give us enough research and information on this glaring failing.
I would still heartedly recommend the book. It gives a strong economic understanding of the history of the country as it pertains to socialism; how America is unique, and how it is not; and the failings and successes of socialism as theory and practice. The strength of the research carries the book and outweighs those the theories that were not pursued enough.
50 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
Socialism in the American Political System
By Steven S. Berizzi
This ambitious and generally excellent book by two veteran political sociologists seeks to explain why the United States, alone among industrial societies, lacks a significant socialist movement or labor party. According to Seymour Martin Lipset, who currently teaches at George Mason University of Virginia, and Gary Marks of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, they are addressing " a classic question of American historiography." That is an accurate assessment, and the authors tackle it with intelligence, imagination, and useful comparative analysis. In an era of global capitalism triumphant, I suspect that most readers will not be interested in a long, albeit erudite, discussion of why the working-class challenge to industrial capitalism failed in the United States. Nevertheless, I recommend this book because it offers deep insights into American society which go far beyond answering the narrow question presented in the title.
Lipset and Marks present three principal reasons for the failure of socialism in the United States. First, that it is "but one instance of the ineffectiveness of third parties in the United States over the last century." Second, socialists and labor unionists "never succeeded in bringing the major union movement, the American Federation of Labor and later the AFL-CIO, to support and independent working-class political party." Third, "immigration created an extremely diverse labor force in which class coherence was undermined by ethnic, racial, and religious identity." Lipset and Marks devote a long, detailed chapter to each reason, and they are the heart of the book, along with the authors' fascinating discussion of the socialists' tendency to battle among themselves over issues of "ideological purity." Rarely has the history of the American labor movement and its political failures been surveyed so effectively.
Even general readers will instantly grasp why, as Lipset and Marks put it, the Great Depression "presented the Socialists with their final opportunity to build a viable political party." Especially in the early 1930s, in the authors view, "[r]ampant poverty, mass unemployment, widespread bankruptcies, and the public's general uncertainty about the future gave the Socialists grounds for believing that they could finally create a durable mass movement." That failed to happen and, in 1932, the Socialist candidate for president received only 2.5% of the total popular vote. The authors write: "Socialists were bitterly disappointed by the vote for [Norman] Thomas in 1932." Even in this time of obvious economic crisis, most American voters refused to turn to a third party. One reason certainly was the Socialists' extreme positions. According to Lipset and Marks, "the majority of Socialists stood far to the left in the first years of the Roosevelt administration, sharply attacking the New Deal as state capitalism." President Roosevelt shrewdly adopted "leftist rhetoric," offered "progressive policies in exchange for support from radical and economically depressed constituencies," and recruited "actual leaders of protest groups by convincing them that they were part of his coalition." At the end of their chapter on the 1930s, Lipset and Marks conclude that the "Great Depression politicized American labor," but the political party which labor embraced was the Democrats, not the Socialists. After World War II, socialism never had a chance. Communists and their fellow travelers were demonized, and leftists of all other shades were marginalized. In contrast with the conventional wisdom, Lipset and Marks make the important observation that "the Communists had lost most of their influence and membership before (Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist) crusade." They assert correctly, therefore, that "the long history of repression of American socialists cannot explain their failure to establish a viable political party." I take that remark to mean that repression, alone, does not account for the failure of socialism in the United States, but it certainly was a factor.
Lipset and Marks wisely concede early in the book that the question they pose - Why did socialism fail in the United States? - "may never be ultimately resolved." But, at the beginning of their final chapter, the authors come close to an authoritative answer when they incisively observe that the "United States is the only Western democracy to have a party system dominated by two parties, both of which are sympathetic to liberal capitalism and neither of which has inherited a socialist or social democratic vision of society." Lipset and Marks explain: "Distinctive elements of American culture - antistatism and individualism - negated the appeal of socialism for the mass of American workers for much of the twentieth century. Socialism, with its emphasis on statism, socialization of the means of production, and equality through taxation, are at odds with the dominant values of American culture." More than anything else, therefore, socialism may have conflicted with the American political tradition and its long-standing social and economic ideals.
Lipset and Marks are correct that socialism promises "to eliminate poverty, racism, sexism, pollution, and war," and its program clearly has its attractions, especially, as the authors observe, "to the idealism inherent in the position of young people and intellectuals." However, some of the most attractive features of the socialist platform have been coopted by the mainstream political parties. This may explain why moderate middle-class reform in the 200h century (progressivism, the New Deal, and the Great Society) has succeeded, while its working-class variant (socialism) failed. This book is not merely about of why socialism did not take root in the United States. It is about the essential characteristics of the political and socio-economic order in American society.
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