Democracy in Print: The Best of The Progressive Magazine, 1909-2009

by Matthew Rothschild

Overview

Democracy in Print captures many of the most influential voices from a century of United States history who have spoken out on the struggle to make real the promise of democracy for all Americans, railed against abuses of corporate power, renounced American empire, championed environmental causes, opposed war, and waged peace. It chronicles voices of the women’s rights movement, the civil rights movement, the labor movement, and the gay rights movement. And on every page, it declares the importance of an independent media, by culling the best of The Progressive magazine over the last one hundred years.
    Readers will discover the vision of the magazine’s founder, Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, and his suffragist wife, Belle Case La Follette. They’ll find historic gems from the likes of Jane Addams, Carl Sandburg, Huey Long, and John Kenneth Galbraith, and profound essays by Theodore Dreiser, Barbara Ehrenreich, Noam Chomsky, Upton Sinclair, Arundhati Roy, James Baldwin, Edwidge Danticat, and Edward Said. The collection is leavened with humor from Kate Clinton, Will Durst, Michael Feldman, and Molly Ivins, and graced by poems from such writers as Mahmoud Darwish, Rita Dove, Martín Espada, Maxine Kumin, Adrienne Rich, and Sandra Cisneros. Fascinating interviews bring readers into conversations with prominent cultural figures, including Chuck D, the Dalai Lama, Allen Ginsberg, Amy Goodman, Harold Pinter, Patti Smith, Susan Sarandon, and Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
    Eminently browsable, this book is for anyone concerned with American democracy, the global community, and the perils of the planet. With contributions by actors and Supreme Court justices, comedians and Nobel Prize-winners, Democracy in Print offers all readers nourishing food for thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299232245
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	04/08/2009
Edition description:	1
Pages:	390
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Matthew Rothschild is editor of The Progressive magazine and host of Progressive Radio, a weekly public affairs program syndicated nationally. He is author of the book You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments   
Introduction: A History of The Progressive Magazine   
    Matthew Rothschild

Part One: Championing Civil Liberties
Free Speech and the Right of Congress to Declare the Objects of the War   
    Robert M. La Follette, November 1917
Theodore Dreiser Denounces Campaign Against Communists   
    Theodore Dreiser, September 1931
What Are We Afraid Of?   
    Robert M. Hutchins, December 1950
Freedom's Most Effective Weapon   
    Morris Rubin, April 1954
The Manifest Destiny of America   
    Justice William O. Douglas, February 1955
The Last Best Hope   
    Justice Hugo L. Black, August 1961
On Secrecy   
    Daniel Schorr, July 1976
When Nice People Burn Books   
    Nat Hentoff, February 1983
Lesbian Writer Fights Feminist Censors   
    Holly Metz, August 1989
Your Urine, Please   
    Barbara Ehrenreich, March 2
That Country Wouldn't Be America   
    Senator Russ Feingold, December 2001
The New McCarthyism   
    Matthew Rothschild, January 2002
Treated Like a Criminal: How the INS Stole Three Days of My Life   
    Behrooz Arshadi, as told to Mark Engler, March 2003
Our Job Is Not to Stand Up and Cheer When the President Breaks the Law   
    Senator Russ Feingold, April 2006

Part Two: Combating Corporate Power
Punish the Real Offenders   
    Robert M. La Follette, May 27, 1911
Borah Tells How Our Wealth Is Divided   
    Senator William E. Borah, May 2, 1931
The Progressive Platform   
    January 5, 1935
Lawless Big Business Must Be Controlled to Save Democracy   
    Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, January 8, 1938
The Profit in Highway Slaughter   
    Ralph Nader, May 1966
Valley of the Shadow of Death   
    Jane Slaughter, March 1985
Tobacco Roads: Delivering Death to the Third World   
    Morton Mintz, May 1991
They Killed My Son   
    Ron Hayes, December 1995
Free Market Fraud   
    John Kenneth Galbraith, January 1999
Wake Me When We're Equal   
    Molly Ivins, April 2001

Part Three: Renouncing Empire
Why War?   
    Robert M. La Follette, March 18, 1911
The Armed Ship Bill Meant War   
    Robert M. La Follette, March 1917
Defense or Imperialism?   
    Robert M. La Follette, February 1921
Armed Intervention in Nicaragua   
    Robert M. La Follette Jr., January 1927
We Have Got to Lick Churchill Too   
    Milton Mayer, November 23, 1942
Vietnam Whitewash: The Congressional Jury That Convicted Itself   
    Thomas R. Harkin, October 1970
How It All Began   
    David Halberstam, April 1973
Behind the Death Squads   
    Allan Nairn, May 1984
The Secret Behind the Sanctions   
    Thomas J. Nagy, September 2001
The Algebra of Infinite Justice   
    Arundhati Roy, December 2001
Heckled in Rockford   
    Chris Hedges, July 2003
The Scourge of Nationalism   
    Howard Zinn, June 2005
The Curse of Columbus   
    Eduardo Galeano, October 2007

Part Four: Campaigning for Women's Equality
My Baby Girl   
    Carl Sandburg, February 10, 1912
If Things Were Reversed   
    Jane Addams, as recorded by Belle Case La Follette, April 6, 1912
May the Women of the United States Vote in 1920?   
    Belle Case La Follette, February 1920
Women's Wages in Government   
    Mary Anderson, Women's Bureau of the Labor Department, as recorded by Belle Case La Follette, December 1926
Women and the Law: Unjust Discrimination   
    Susan Brandeis, February 9, 1930
The "Patriotic" Prostitute   
    Jill Gay, February 1985
Memoirs of a Normal Childhood   
    Bonnie Urfer, October 1986
Awesome Women in Sports   
    Ruth Conniff, May 1993
An Interview with Gloria Steinem   
    L A. Winokur, June 1995
What Shall I Wear?   
    Elizabeth Karlin, October 1994
An Interview with Katha Pollitt, Columnist for The Nation   
    Ruth Conniff, December 1994
An Interview with Gloria Steinem   
    L. A. Winokur, June 1995
Dulcet Tones   
    Molly Ivins, October 1995
An Interview with Ani DiFranco, Folksinger   
    Matthew Rothschild, May 2

Part Five: Linking Arms with the Civil Rights Movement
The Color Line   
    Belle Case La Follette, August 23, 1913
Twin Evils of the Literacy Test: Privilege and Race Discrimination Threaten the High Standard of This Country   
    Louis D. Brandeis, April 1915
Murdering Negroes   
    Robert M. La Follette, August 1919
Lynching Punishes the Community   
    Anna Howard Shaw, November 1919
The Plunder Harvest in Indian Affairs   
    Senator Burton K. Wheeler, September 1929
Sato: A Letter to a Japanese American   
    Ernest L. Meyer, January 17, 1942
Revolt Against Jim Crow   
    A. Philip Randolph, May 1948
Intruder in the Dust   
    Murray Kempton, November 1955
The Burning Truth in the South   
    Martin Luther King Jr., May 1960
"I Will Keep My Soul"   
    James Farmer, November 1961
A Letter to My Nephew   
    James Baldwin, December 1962
"Arab": Did You Flinch?   
    Pat Aufderheide, August 1984
The New Bigotry   
    Mike Ervin, December 1984
The Underclass Myth   
    Adolph L. Reed Jr., August 1991
My Father's Party   
    Luis J. Rodríguez, April 2008   

Part Six: Joining the Cause of Gay Liberation
I'm Proud to Be a Sissie   
    Richard Gollance, May 1973
An Interview with Randy Shilts, Author of And the Band Played On   
    Laurie Udesky, May 1991
One Good Mother to Another   
    Minnie Bruce Pratt, November 1993
An Interview with Larry Kramer, Playwright and Founder of ACT UP   
    L. A. Winokur, June 1994
An Interview with Urvashi Vaid, Author and foundation leader in the lesbian and gay rights movement   
    Anne-Marie Cusac, March 1996
An Interview with Harry Hay, Founder of the Mattachine Society, the First Modern Gay-Rights Group   
    Anne-Marie Cusac, September 1998
I Do Weddings   
    Kate Clinton, July 2004

Part Seven: Defending the Environment
Teddy Roosevelt's Greatest Work   
    Robert M. La Follette, March 13, 1909
Have You Ever Seen This Bird?   
    C. F. Hodge, April 8, 1911
The National Pollution Scandal   
    Senator Gaylord Nelson, February 1967
Earth Day: A Beginning   
    Denis Hayes, April 1970
Fake Food Is the Future   
    Jim Hightower, September 1975
The Clamshell Alliance: Getting It Together   
    Harvey Wasserman, September 1977   
Earth First!   
    Dave Foreman, October 1981
An Interview with Wendell Berry, Writer, Farmer, Environmentalist   
    Carol Polsgrove and Scott Sanders, May 1990
An Interview with Winona LaDuke, Native American environmentalist, Green Party Vice Presidential candidate with Ralph Nader   
    Sonya Paul and Robert Perkinson, October 1995
Arctic Heat Wave   
    Bruce E. Johansen, October 2001
An Interview with Terry Tempest Williams, Writer, Environmentalist   
    David Kupfer, February 2005
An Interview with Wangari Maathai, Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize   
    Amitabh Pal, May 2005

Part Eight: Reforming Criminal Justice
To the Hangmen's Managers and Sympathizers   
    Leo Tolstoy, December 3, 1910
Capital Punishment   
    Belle Case La Follette, August 31, 1912
Death Punishment Does Not Deter Crime   
    Senator John J. Blaine, August 1927
Requiem for the Champ   
    June Jordan, April 1992
An Interview with Sister Helen Prejean, Criminal Justice Activist and Author of Dead Man Walking   
    Judy Pennington, January 1996
Abu Ghraib, USA   
    Anne-Marie Cusac, July 2004

Part Nine: Freeing the Media
People Demand a Free Press   
    Robert M. La Follette, November 1920
"Freedom of the Press" Bares Suppressed Facts Concerning Journalism   
    George Seldes, March 21, 1936
The Media Monopolies   
    Ben H. Bagdikian, June 1978
The Bounds of Thinkable Thought   
    Noam Chomsky, October 1985
Body-Bag Journalism   
    Susan Douglas, April 1997
Oligopoly: The Big Media Game Has Fewer and Fewer Players   
    Robert W. McChesney, November 1999
An Interview with Helen Thomas, White House Correspondent   
    Elizabeth DiNovella, August 2004
An Interview with Amy Goodman, Founder and Host of Democracy Now!   
    Elizabeth DiNovella, February 2008

Part Ten: Standing Up for Labor
The Strike of the Shirtwaist Girls   
    Elizabeth Dutcher, April 23, 1910
Why Wisconsin Gave a Record-Breaking Vote to La Follette   
    Louis D. Brandeis, April 13, 1912
The Eight-Hour Day Will Come
    Robert M. La Follette, July 19, 1913   
Anti-Trust Law and Labor: An Appeal to Congress and the Public   
    Samuel Gompers, President, American Federation of Labor, April 11, 1914
The War of Organized Capital Against the People   
    Robert M. La Follette, December 1920
Human Wreckage: A Plea for Federal Relief   
    William Green, President, American Federation of Labor, February 20, 1932
A Letter to Henry Ford   
    Upton Sinclair, January 15, 1938
The Work Ethic: It Works Best for Those Who Work Least   
    John Kenneth Galbraith, June 1981
An Interview with Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder, United Farm Workers   
    Susan Samuels Drake, September 2

Part Eleven: Parading Poetry
Solidarity   
    June Jordan, June 1989
Sleeping on the Bus   
    Martín Espada, November 1995
To the Poet Whose Lover Has Died of AIDS   
    Kenny Fries, March 1996
Sonnet on the Location of Hell   
    Jack Agüeros, April 1996
Storm   
    C. K. Williams, September 1996
Poem for an Election Year: The Politics of Blindweed   
    Maxine Kumin, November 1996
Black on a Saturday Night   
    Rita Dove, June 1998
The Communist Party   
    Philip Levine, November 1998
La Niña Obediente/The Obedient Girl   
    Marjorie Agosín, June 1999
Veterans Day   
    Adrienne Rich, November 2
The Avenue of the Americas   
    Alicia Ostriker, February 2001
Not Spoken   
    Tim Seibles, March 2002
Rue Beaurepaire   
    Marilyn Hacker, July 2002
My Name's Not Rodríguez   
    Luis J. Rodríguez, August 2002
Balance   
    Mario Susko, April 2003
Book Burning   
    Jay Rogoff, Janary 2004
Patriotic Poem   
    Rafael Campo, December 2004
sizing up the cost of war   
    devorah major, February 2006
On the Third Anniversary of the Ongoing War in Iraq   
    Sam Hamill, August 2006
The House Murdered   
    Mahmoud Darwish, November 2006
No Moon   
    Spoon Jackson, December 2006
Prayer for the New Millennium   
    Sandra Cisneros, July 2007

Part Twelve: Waging Peace
Take the Profit Out of War   
    Robert M. La Follette, February 1915
The Right of the Citizen to Oppose War and the Right of Congress to Shape the War Policy   
    Robert M. La Follette, June 1917
Gandhi Opposes Bloodshed   
    September 19, 1931
Who Is It That Wants War?   
    Bertrand Russell, September 24, 1932
We Can Have Peace, If We Want It   
    Norman Thomas, July 9, 1945
Anniversary   
    Elaine Holstein, May 1988
Not a Just War, Just a War   
    Erwin Knoll, June 1991
Dying for the Government   
    Howard Zinn, June 2003
An Interview with Cindy Sheehan, "The Peace Mom"   
    David Barsamian, March 2006

Part Thirteen: Opposing Nuclear Weapons
Plunderers in Paradise   
    Ernest L. Meyer, August 20, 1945
The Doomsday Strategy   
    Sidney Lens, February 1976
Radiation: Unsafe at Any Level   
    Dr. Helen Caldicott, December 1978
Born Secret: The Story Behind the H-bomb Article We're Not Allowed to Print   
    Erwin Knoll, May 1979
The H-bomb Secret: To Know How Is to Ask Why   
    Howard Morland, November 1979
Why We Seized the Hammer   
    Philip Berrigan, May 1981
An Interview with Sam Day, Peace Activist   
    Matthew Rothschild, March 2001

Part Fourteen: Weaving a Safety Net
The Reaction of Moral Instruction upon Social Reform   
    Jane Addams, May 1, 1909
How Shall We Pay for Industrial Accidents?   
    Robert M. La Follette, July 17, 1909
Why We Need an Income Tax   
    Senator William E. Borah, July 17, 1909
The Need for Health Insurance   
    Irving Fisher, January 1917
Wagner Urges Unemployment Relief Action   
    Senator Robert Wagner, June 14, 1930
The Long Plan for Recovery   
    Senator Huey P. Long, April 1, 1933
The Taxing Power Is Only Effective Way to Redistribute Wealth and Break Down Vast Fortunes   
    William T. Evjue, June 29, 1935
Look at America   
    Governor Phil La Follette, April 30, 1938
A New Economic Bill of Rights   
    Harry Magdoff, November 1990
Cutting the Lifeline: The Real Welfare Fraud   
    Ruth Conniff, February 1992
To Your Health   
    Michael Feldman, November 1994
Another Country   
    Edwidge Danticat, November 2005
President Bush, Meet Lorraine   
    Barbara Ehrenreich, April 2006

Part Fifteen: Upholding Human Rights
Human Rights Higher Than Property Rights   
    President Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1910
Still Those Who Prize Freedom   
    Heywood Broun, January 8, 1938
Against Isolationism   
    William T. Evjue, September 30, 1939
Let Me In on the Kill   
    Milton Mayer, October 14, 1946
On Justice for the Palestinians   
    I. F. Stone, January 1975
A Palestinian Versailles   
    Edward W. Said, December 1993
An Interview with Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize Winner   
    Leslie Kean and Dennis Bernstein, March 1997
An Interview with Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Winner   
    Zia Jaffrey, February 1998
Where We Went Wrong: A Palestinian's Soul Search   
    Hanan Ashrawi, February 2002
An Interview with Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Winner   
    Amitabh Pal, September 2004
An Interview with the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize Winner   
    Amitabh Pal, January 2006

Part Sixteen: Democratizing Democracy
Restrict Use of Money in Campaigns   
    Wisconsin Senator A. W. Sanborn, March 20, 1909
Initiative, Referendum, and Recall   
    Robert M. La Follette, December 10, 1910
Election of National Delegates and the Nomination of President by Direct Vote   
Robert M. La Follette, January 7, 1911
The Great Issue   
    Robert M. La Follette, February 17, 1912
Elect President by Direct Vote   
    Senator George W. Norris, January 1922
The Power and Duty of the Senate: Expenditure of Huge Sums for Seats in Congress Cannot Be Justified; "Pay As You Enter" Policy Denounced   
    Senator George W. Norris, January 1927
What Democracy Means   
    Upton Sinclair, March 25, 1939
The Erosion of Liberty   
    Neil Sheehan, July 1972
Wall Street's Mascots   
    Molly Ivins, September 2002

Part Seventeen: Providing a Platform for Writers, Musicians, and Performers
An Interview with Pete Seeger, Folksinger   
    Mike Ervin, April 1986
An Interview with Frank Zappa, Musician   
    Batya Friedman and Steve Lyons, November 1986
An Interview with Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Poet   
    Katrina vanden Heuvel, April 1987
An Interview with Alice Walker, Novelist   
    Claudia Dreifus, August 1989
An Interview with Susan Sarandon, Actress   
    Claudia Dreifus, October 1989
An Interview with Allen Ginsberg, Poet   
    Matthew Rothschild, August 1994
An Interview with Patti Smith, Musician   
    John Nichols, December 1997
An Interview with Harold Pinter, Playwright   
    Anne-Marie Cusac, March 2001
An Interview with George Carlin, Comedian   
    Marc Cooper, July 2001
An Interview with Janeane Garofalo, Actress   
    Elizabeth DiNovella, May 2003
An Interview with Kurt Vonnegut   
    David Barsamian, June 2003
Crack Kills, Pot Giggles   
    Will Durst, August 2003
An Interview with Tom Morello, Musician   
    Elizabeth DiNovella, January 2004
An Interview with Chuck D, Hip-Hop Artist   
    Antonino D'Ambrosio, August 2005

Part Eighteen: Envisioning a Better World
The Basis of the Struggle   
    Robert M. La Follette, July 31, 1909
Toward a Manifest New Destiny   
    June Jordan, February 1992
A Flash of the Possible   
    Howard Zinn, January 2
History Is a Dance of Life   
    Paul Wellstone, December 2002
Our Story   
    Bill Moyers, May 2004

Editorial Reviews

From these pieces one gets a sense of the vigor of the left’s past . . . . and its perennial relevance to American life.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

The more things change, the more the lefty political magazine the Progressive stays the same, to judge by this scintillating anthology of short articles. Ninety-odd years ago, one could find in its pages founding editor-and U.S. senator-Robert M. La Follette's denunciations of racism, imperialist war, money in politics and rapacious corporations; odes to feminism by Jane Addams and Carl Sandburg; an environmentalist elegy for the passenger pigeon by C.F. Hodge; and a jeremiad against the death penalty by Leo Tolstoy himself. These concerns (and new themes like gay rights and the perils of nuclear power) are elaborated upon in later articles by some of the leading voices of the left: Martin Luther King Jr. on the power of nonviolence; John Kenneth Galbraith on the laziness of the rich; Ralph Nader on the callousness of car companies; Noam Chomsky on media propaganda; and Molly Ivins on the absurdities of Republicans. From these pieces one gets a sense of the vigor of the left's past-see FDR's secretary of the interior, Harold Ickes, attacking "big-business Fascist America"-and its perennial relevance to American life. (May 1)

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