William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism (Working Class in American History)

In this trenchant work, James Barrett traces the political journey of a leading worker radical whose life and experiences encapsulate radicalism's rise and fall in the United States. A self-educated wage earner raised in the slums of a large industrial city, William Z. Foster became a brilliant union organizer who helped build the American Federation of Labor and, later, radical Trade Union Educational League. Embracing socialism, syndicalism, and communism in turn, Foster rose through the ranks of the American Communist Party to stand at the forefront of labor politics throughout the 1920s. Yet by the time he died in 1961, in a Moscow hospital far from the meat-packing plants and steel mills where he had built his reputation, Foster's political marginalism stood as a symbol for the isolation of American labor radicalism in the postwar era. Integrating both the indigenous and the international factors that determined the fate of American communism, William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism provides a new understanding of the basis for radicalism among twentieth-century American workers. Contents Introduction 1. Skittereen and the Open Road, 1881-1904 2. From Socialism to Syndicalism, 1904-12 3. The Militant Minority, 1912-16 4. The Chicago Stockyards, 1917-18 5. The Great Steel Strike, 1918-19 6. From Syndicalism to Communism, 1920-22 7. Boring from Within, 1922-25 8. Factionalism, 1925-29 9. Class against Class, 1929-35 10. On the Margins of the Popular Front, 1935-45 11. FiveMinutes to Midnight, 1945-56 12. The Final Conflict, 1956-61 Conclusion Notes Index "William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism incorporates the indigenous and the international factors that determined the fate of American communism. By tracing the evolution of Foster's experiences and ideology and assaying the quality of his political commitment as a worker and organizer in the American West and Midwest, Barret provides foundation for understanding the basis for radicalism among twentieth-century American workers."--BOOK JACKET. THE IRISH CALLED IT "Skittereen"-a squalid stretch of Philadelphia's West End from Sixteenth Street to Seventeenth Street, between South Street and Fitzwater.