RED AMERICA: SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM BEFORE THE COLD WAR

Willie Hiatt via ZOOM

Although socialism in the United States never enjoyed the broad electoral support it found in other Western countries, the period between the founding of the Socialist Party in 1901 and the end of the Great War created a rare opportunity for leftist, grassroots organizing on behalf of workers’ rights and other progressive ideals. However, the Russian Revolution (1917) and the establishment of the Communist International (1919) led to the decline of socialism and the rise of communism. Faith in world revolution and the allegiance to a foreign ideology centered in the Soviet Union alienated voters and led to an erosion of support for an alternative leftist political party. This lecture explores American socialism and communism from the turn of the twentieth century to the Cold War.

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