Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist / Edition 2

by Nick Salvatore

Overview

Eugene Debs (1855-1926) is regarded by many as American history's premier labor advocate. He was the leader of the Socialist party, five-time Socialist candidate for president, outspoken on the rights of all workers, and a persistent defender of America's democratic traditions. 

Nick Salvatore's acclaimed biography offers a major reevaluation of Debs, the movements he launched, and his belief in American Socialism as an extension of the nation's democratic traditions. He also shows the relationship between Debs's public image and his private life as child, sibling, husband, and lover. Salvatore's Debs—weaknesses intact—emerges as a complex man, frustrated and angered by the glaring inequities of a new economic order, and willing to risk his freedom to preserve the essence of democratic society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252074523
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	03/15/2007
Series:	Working Class in American History
Edition description:	2nd Edition
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Nick Salvatore is Maurice and Hinda Neufeld Founders Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and a professor of American studies at Cornell University. He is the author of We All Got History: The Memory Books of Amos Webberand other books.

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the Bancroft Prize and the American Historical Association’s John H. Dunning Prize in U.S. History.

"In this stunning book, Salvatore sets Debs firmly within the central traditions of United States political and social history and depicts, as never before, the triumph and tragedy that characterized the socialist leader's personal and public life."—American Historical Review

"Nick Salvatore's biography is very solid work. . . . The Debs who emerges is a flawed human being—very flawed—yet an extraordinary person: a man deficient in self-knowledge, as public figures usually are, but also a great tribune."—New York Review of Books

“This is biography at its best.”—Eric Foner, History Book Club

From the Publisher

In this stunning book, Salvatore sets Debs firmly within the central traditions of United States political and social history and depicts, as never before, the triumph and tragedy that characterized the socialist leaders personal and public life…Salvatore writes with warmth, grace, power, and feeling, and moves the reader…this book deserves to be read and treasured as the finest life of a modern American radical now in print.
—Melvyn Dubofsky, American Historical Review

Melvyn Dubofsky

Salvatore really knows the inner world of Debsian socialism, and he is shrewd in relating Debs' public presence to his personal life…The Debs who emerges is a flawed human being—very flawed—yet an extraordinary person…a vibrant and touching figure.
—Irving Howe, New York Review of Books

Irving Howe

This is biography at its best.
—Eric Foner, History Book Club Review

Eric Foner