This volume offers new perspectives on the appeal and profound cultural meaning of socialism over the past two centuries. It brings together scholarship from various disciplines addressing diverse national contexts, including Britain, China, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the USA. Taken together, the contributions highlight the aesthetic, narrative, and religious dimensions of socialism as it has developed through three broad phases in the modern era: early nineteenth-century beginnings, mass-based political organizations, and the attainment of state power in the twentieth century and beyond. Socialism did not attract millions of people primarily because of logical argument and empirical evidence, important though those were. Rather, it told the most compelling story about the past, present, and future. Refocusing attention on socialism's imaginative dimensions, this volume aims to revive scholarly interest in one of the modern world1s most important political orientations.

"This is the epic story of the struggle to build a mass socialist movement in ragtime America. Kipnis was a brilliant historian, and this is his enduring gift to activists." --Mike Davis A new edition of the out-of-print classic.

Socialist Cities is a comparative treatment of grass-roots Socialist successes. It marks the first comprehensive look at the urban working-class base of the American Socialist movement in the early part of the century, and reveals the importance of municipal politics as an organizing strategy. The author assesses the reactions of both workers and non-workers to the party, and provides a fresh perspective on the perennial question of why socialism 'failed' in America. He demonstrates that the subtle and ongoing dialogue between the party's own internal theoretical and tactical weaknesses and the broader class and structural obstacles against which it struggled, contributed to its failure.

This is the history of the most significant translator, publisher, and distributor of left-wing literature in the United States. Based in Chicago and still publishing, Charles H. Kerr & Company began in 1886 as a publisher of Unitarian tracts. The company's focus changed after its founder, the son of abolitionist activists, became a socialist at the turn of the century. Tracing Kerr's political development and commitment to radical social change, "We Called Each Other Comrade" also tells the story of the difficulties of exercising the First Amendment in an often hostile business and political climate. A fascinating exploration in left-wing culture, this revealing chronicle of Charles H. Kerr and his revolutionary publishing company looks at the remarkable list of books, periodicals, and pamphlets that the firm produced and traces the strands of a rich tradition of dissent in America.

Providing a radical new reading of Hayek's life and work, this new book, by an important Hayekian scholar, dispels many of the mysteries surrounding one of the most prominent economists and political philosophers of the twentieth century. Angner argues that Hayek's work should be seen as continuous with the Natural Law tradition, going on to analyze the response to his work and explain why some have found his ideas so attractive and why others have found them so unpersuasive. The book develops novel accounts of his thought on: spontaneous order information and coordination cultural evolution. This fresh and incisive analysis is the perfect introduction to Hayek's thought for academics involved with philosophical economics and the history of economic ideas as well as for scholars of all levels seeking a new interpretation or deeper understanding of the origins of his work.