Socialism in the American West, 1830-1954

In Socialism in the American West, 1830-1954, Mark Kruger provides a kaleidoscopic narrative history of the socialist experience in the American West during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including utopian colonies, the socialist and communist parties, anarchists, and the efforts of socialist politicians and labor organizations to create a better world. During the early Industrial Revolution in the United States, the American West was invaded by financial and corporate capitalism and saw the development of technologies that gave rise to the exploitation of workers and the worst excesses of industrial capitalism in North American history. Kruger shows how that environment gave birth to class consciousness, class conflict, and workers organizations, and led to the embrace of communitarianism, socialism, communism, and anarchism. Kruger tell the remarkable story of working-class resistance and resilience in the face of American capitalism and shows how there has been a continuous working-class and socialist movement in the United States to improve the lives of all Americans. Despite political repression at the hands of local, state, and federal authorities, by the 1930s America's working class and its socialist politics had paved the way for the ideas, policies, and institutions of the modern American social welfare state.