The Catholic socialist Dorothy Day was a fan of Italian (also Catholic, to an extent) writer Iganzio Silone. She wrote about meeting Silone as part of January 1, 1968 piece in The Catholic Worker: In wrestling with the problem of […]
socialism
Cornel West is running for president
Here is Maggie Astor at The New York Times: Cornel West, the progressive activist and professor, announced a presidential campaign on Monday with the People’s Party, a third party led by a former campaign staff member for Senator Bernie Sanders. […]
What would early 20th century Tampa cigar workers think about Ron DeSantis’s “working class roots”?
As Shawn Gude writes at Jacobin: “May Day is not a holiday for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, much as he might pose as a working-class champion. For a more robust vision of freedom, we can look to the Florida Socialists […]
A socialist magazine on “wokeness” and “cultural Marxism”
Conservatives, including Turning Point USA pundit Charlie Kirk, like to scare people with threats of “cultural Marxism.” Here is Nick French at Jacobin: The American right’s long and venerable tradition of red-baiting has always involved branding any kind of efforts at progressive […]
“Christianity in overalls”
Over at Jacobin, Stephen Barton introduces many of us to J. Stitt Wilson, the socialist major of Berkeley, California from 1911 to 1913. Here is a taste: On Easter Sunday, 1911, San Francisco’s Central Theater was packed with more than […]
In 1920, Eugene Debs got 1 million votes for president of the United States. He was in jail.
Today someone asked me if Donald Trump could still run for president if he is in jail. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs received over 900,000 votes while […]
Michael Walzer on “liberal” as an adjective
Close readers of this blog will recall that I recently added some quotes from Michael Walzer to my commonplace book. The quotes come from Walzer’s latest book The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On “Liberal” as an Adjective. Walzer is […]
Abraham Lincoln: Working class hero?
Everyone wants to claim Lincoln. Even socialists. Here is University of Arkansas history professor Matthew Stanley at Jacobin: Would Lincoln’s sincere hatred of the Slave Power have translated after the war to a critique of the Money Power and other […]
Is the Jesus of “He Gets Us” present in conservative evangelicalism?
Many are criticizing the “He Gets Us” Super Bowl ads that will appear during tonight’s Super Bowl because they are funded by the deep pockets of Hobby Lobby and use Jesus as a “brand.” But Liz Featherstone, writing at the […]
What can we learn from Antonio Gramsci?
Here is a taste of Jacobin‘s Daniel Denvir’s interview with Yale labor historian Michael Denning: DANIEL DENVIR: This argument has implications for what has often been called “false consciousness”: the question of what to make of people holding beliefs that […]
“Socialism has been as impossible to separate from the narrative of the nation’s history as the capitalist economy itself”
Over at Literary Hub, Georgetown historian Michael Kazin offers a “Brief History of American Socialism.” Here is a taste: “America will never be a socialist country,” declared Donald Trump in his 2019 State of the Union Address, given to a […]
Do we need a national rail system?
Jacobin writer Luke Savage thinks so. I am sympathetic to his argument. Here is Savage’s recent piece: Earlier this year, the federal board charged with overseeing America’s rail network called a hearing to discuss widespread complaints about higher costs and poor service. […]
A socialist reminds Charlie Kirk that Joe Biden is not a socialist
The MAGA right, including right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk (he’ll be at an evangelical megachurch near you this weekend) is fond of saying that Joe Biden is bringing socialism to the United States. This is laughable. Ben Burgis of Jacobin is […]
The hope of socialism
Here is a taste of Katha Pollit’s recent piece at Dissent: On the other hand, if you have open elections, with a free press and organized political parties that can compete on equal terms with the governing party, people can […]
More on Christian socialism
Last weekend we dropped Episode 103 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast with historian Vaneesa Cook, author of Spiritual Socialists: Religion and the American Left. I hope you enjoy this episode. If you are interested in learning more […]
Episode 103: Spiritual Socialists
Does the American Left have religion problem? What can progressives learn from people like Dorothy Day, Ignazio Silone, Henry Wallace, Staughton Lynd, and Cornel West? Many of these thinkers and activists offered a powerful vision for a moral and just […]
World Socialist Web Site on the James Sweet “presentism” controversy
Historian Thomas Mackaman, writing at the publication of the world Trotskyist movement, has some pointed words for the American Historical Association president James Sweet and his critics. Get up to speed on the controversy here and here. Here is a […]
When Eugene Debs eulogized John Brown
While he was campaigning for president in 1908, the candidate of the Socialist Party of America stopped in Harper’s Ferry and eulogized John Brown. Jacobin has published Debs’s remarks. Here is a taste: As I stand here on this spot […]
The Marxist scholar who believes anti-racism is a cover for capitalism
If you listen to some folks on the Right these days you might conclude that there is little difference between the anti-racism and Marxism. But as Benjamin Wallace-Wells reveals in his recent piece on political scientist Adolph Reed, there are […]
The Jacobin editors on the “commonsense solidarity” of the American working class
The socialist magazine Jacobin recently published a study on the political views of the American working-class. The editors offer several takeaways: “Working-class voters prefer progressive candidates who focus primarily on bread-and-butter economic issues, and who frame those issues in universal […]