It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States

Title: It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States
Author: Seymour Martin Lipset
ISBN: 9780393040982
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
Published: 2000
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Edition: First Edition
Number of Pages: 384
Condition Note: Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.
Publisher Description: Parties calling themselves Socialist, Social-Democratic, Labor, or Communist have been major forces in every democratic country in the world, yet they have played a surprisingly insignificant role in American politics. Why the United States, the most developed capitalist industrial society and hence, ostensibly, fertile ground for socialism, should constitute an exception has been a critical question of American history and political development.

In this probing work the authors draw on rich contrasts with other English-speaking countries and extensive comparisons within the United States at the state and city levels, eschewing conventional explanations of socialism's demise to present a fuller understanding of how multiple factors -- political structure, American values, and the split between the Socialist party and mainstream unions -- combined to seal socialism's fate. Further chapters examine the distinctive character of American trade unions, immigration and the fragmentation of the American working class, socialist strategies, and repression, concluding with a penetrating analysis of American political exceptionalism up to the present day.