The "S" Word

A Short History of an American Tradition...Socialism

John Nichols

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781844676798
• eBook ISBN: 9781781683781
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Economics

During the Cold War it became a dirty word in the United States, but "socialism" runs like a red thread through the nation's history, an integral part of its political consciousness since the founding of the republic. In this unapologetic corrective to today's collective amnesia, John Nichols calls for the proud return of socialism in American life. He recalls the reforms lauded by Founding Father Tom Paine; the presence of Karl Marx's journalism in American letters; the left leanings of founders of the Republican Party; the socialist politics of Helen Keller; the progressive legacy of figures like Chaplin and Einstein. Now in an updated edition, The "S" Word makes a case for socialist ideas as an indispensable part of American heritage. A new final chapter considers the recent signs of a leftward sea change in American politics in the face of increasing and historic levels of inequality.

Today, corporations-like other rich "individuals"-pay fewer taxes than they did in the 1950s, while our infrastructure crumbles and the seas rise. The "S" Wordaddresses a nation that can no longer afford to put capital before people.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgements: Whitman, Sylvie and the Emmas
• Chapter One—“More of a Socialist than I Thought”: Walt Whitman and a Very American Ism
• Chapter Two—“A Broader Patriotism”: Thomas Paine and the Promise of Red Republicanism
• Chapter Three—Reading Marx with Abraham Lincoln: Utopian Socialists, German Communists and Other Republicans
• Chapter Four—A Legal and Peaceable Revolution of the Mind: The Socialism That Did Happen Here
• Chapter Five—“Simply a Stupid Piece of Despotism”: How Socialists Saved the First Amendment
• Chapter Six—For Jobs and Freedom: The “Militant Radical” Socialist Who Dared to Dream of a March on Washington
• Afterword: “But What about Democratic Left Politics?”
• A Note on Sources
• Index