An American Dissenter

Download or read book An American Dissenter written by Kent Kreuter and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this biography of Algie Martin Simons, a major figure in the Socialist party of America, Kent and Gretchen Kreuter show the widely ranging social activities that brought Simons into touch with many of the movements and personalities of his time. As a propagandist and historian, Simons wrote the first thoroughgoing Marxist account of American history. As a journalist, he furnished Upton Sinclair with much of the material that he used in The Jungle, and as a party politician, Simons was a significant force in unifying the party, in establishing the International Workers of the World (IWW), and in trying to make socialism an acceptable alternative for the American voter. Although he broke with the party in 1917, Simons, as a teacher and a writer on industrial relations, continually struggled with the major problems that faced industrial society in the twentieth century.