Eugene V. Debs

How Eugene V. Debs turned American republicanism against the chiefs of capitalism – and became a true crusader for freedom.

Can you run for president from a prison cell? One man did in the 1920 election and got almost a million votes.

The papers of American labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) offer a snapshot of early twentieth-century politics.

Eugene Debs’s unswerving commitment to democracy and internationalism was born out of his revulsion at the tyranny of industrial capitalism.

He forced the country to engage in a three-year conversation about the meaning of free speech that shaped policy and law after World War I.

Looking at the Pullman Strike and the political forces it stirred.

After winning 6 percent of the vote in the 1912 presidential election, Eugene Debs ran afoul of the nation's new anti-sedition laws.

An effort is underway to restore President Wilson’s reputation as a great reformer. His best reforms were won by a mass movement, often pushing against Wilson.

Leftists have regarded Lincoln as a pro-labor hero who helped vanquish chattel slavery. We should celebrate him today within the radical democratic tradition.

A sweeping new history weaves personal, intellectual, and spiritual narratives into a book that reminds us of the potential of the socialist movement.

Why does the government have the power to break massive union strikes? Part of the story is a history of conciliatory railway unionism.

The late socialist writer's first book was a deep exploration of how the US labor movement became so weakened.

A new book documents a period of thriving radical groups and their devastating suppression.

Despite their minority status, the Socialists had been a significant force in American politics before patriotic war hysteria brought on an era of repression.

He's remembered as a person of conscience who carefully broke unjust laws. But his challenges to state authority place him in a much different tradition: radical labor activism.

The Espionage Act turns 100 today. It helped destroy the Socialist Party of America and quashes free speech to this day.

Clarence Darrow’s unfinished work.

The complex history, career, and legacy of one of America's most popular speakers and reformers.

On the long tradition of Black third-party activism.

The law, passed in a frenzy after the First World War, is a disaster. Why is it still on the books?