American Socialist was a really good biography of Eugene V. Debs and a fascinating look at the rise of the American socialist and labor movements. I especially liked seeing how Debs evolved from a fairly moderate railroad worker and politician into one of the country’s most prominent socialist leaders and a five-time presidential candidate. Well researched and very readable, and I learned a lot about both Debs and a part of American political history I didn’t know nearly enough about.

This is the best history I have read of Deb’s and the political period he lived in. He isn’t treated as a sideshow like in other histories of the era, but nor is the narrative so bogged down in socialist philosophies that one loses the broader context. This is an excellent book.

<i>American Socialist: The Life and Legacy of Eugene V. Debs</i> by Shawn Gude traces Debs from birth to death and then ends with a note about where the Socialist party stands now.

I didn’t really know much about Debs; I’m sure I have heard his name bandied around, given the political atmosphere of the latest presidential elections, but he was some formless spectre to me if so. When I was offered the ARC and saw he was from Indiana, I had to grab it—we Hoosiers love lifting up our brethren.

This book was great! Gude’s style of writing invites the reader in, and in some instances he would set up a hint of what was to come, teasing almost like a novel. I got to know Debs in the text, and it was fascinating to see him grow as a person; he went from being against strikes and spouting some xenophobic language, to being the one many organisations turned to when striking as well as shouting down the KKK. He was a flawed individual, carrying on an affair—certainly emotional, and possibly even physical—with a woman who was part of the cause. And yet even so, he was a man so beloved that, upon leaving prison after being jailed for speaking against the US’s involvement in WWI, the other prisoners lined up to cheer for him when his prison sentence was commuted.

I couldn’t help but think of the Bernie Sanders rally I went to, how he would shout and wave his hands around when the book spoke of how animated Debs was in speeches. Reading this book riled me up, absorbing the atrocities this country committed all to keep people compliant and eke all the profit that could be had and siphon it up to a privileged few, because I see the exact same happening today but WORSE.

I recommend this book to anyone who would like to get a better grasp on Debs as well as the history of the Socialist party, for the book is, really, about both subjects.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.