Radicalism And Its Stupidities

Wilhelm Weitling, one of the many German radicals who fled into exile after 1848, noted in the New York newspaper he founded that "everyone wants to put out a little paper". The 48ers and those who came after them strengthened their immigrant culture with a seemingly endless stream of newspapers, magazines, and calendars. In these Kampfblatter, or newspapers of the struggle, German immigrant journalists preached socialism, organized labor, and free thought. These "little papers" were the forerunners of a press that would remain influential for nearly a century. From the several perspectives of the new labor history, this volume emphasizes the importance of the German-American radical press to an understanding of American social history in the age of industrialism and illuminates the complexities of the interaction of immigrant radicalism and American culture. Chicago's German-language socialist weekly, Der Vorbote, claimed in 1880 that "the history of the workers' movement in the United States is at the same time the history of the workers' press". Hyperbolic perhaps, but to judge by the energy and resources German-American radicals devoted to their press, many immigrants agreed. The radical movement in the United States met with problems as well as support. Language and culture frequently divided the radicals, and class considerations splintered the German-American community. Cultural radicals like Robert Reitzel and Ludwig Lore ran afoul of rank-and-file taste or party discipline; attempts by the New Yorker Volkszeitung to coach women on proper socialist positions resulted in bitter arguments over the importance of woman suffrage and pacifism. At the same time, social movements thatcut across ethnic lines weakened the power of a foreign-language press within the community, as immigrants began to identify with a movement rather than a language. Contributors to this volume explore these and other issues, while correcting the bias in histories of radicalism which rely on English-language sources and thus ignore the competing visions of immigrant radicals.

Stupidity permeates our perception and practice of politics. We frequently accuse politicians, bureaucrats, journalists, voters, "elites," and "the masses" for their stupidities. In fact, it is not only "populist politicians," "sensational journalism," and "uneducated voters" who are accused of stupidity. Similar accusations can be, and in fact have been, made concerning those who criticize them as well. It seems that stupidity is ubiquitous, unable to be contained within or attributed to one specific political position, personal trait, or even ignorance and erroneous reasoning Undertaking a theoretical investigation of stupidity, this book challenges the assumption that stupidity can be avoided. Otobe argues that the very ubiquity of stupidity implies its unavoidability—that we cannot contain it in such domains as error, ignorance, or "post-truth." What we witness is rather that one’s reasoning can be sound, evidence-based, and stupid. In revealing this unavoidability, he contends that stupidity is an ineluctable problem not only of politics, but also of thinking. We become stupid because we think: It is impossible to distinguish a priori stupid thought from upright, righteous thought. Moreover, the failure to address the unavoidability of stupidity leads political theory to the failure to acknowledge the productive moments that experiences of stupidity harbor within. Such productive moments constitute the potential of stupidity—that radical new ideas can emerge out of our seemingly banal and stupid thinking in our daily political activity.

A Preface to Politics (1913) was the first book of political commentary published by Walter Lippmann, one of the most widely read and influential journalists of the 20th century. Shortly after its publication, Lippmann cofounded The New Republic magazine, in which he regularly published the kind of astute political analysis that he debuted in A Preface to Politics. He later served in the administration of Woodrow Wilson and had a decisive influence on the formulation of Wilson's famous Fourteen Points. But his greatest influence came from the popular syndicated column called Today and Tomorrow, which he wrote for thirty years. At its height 250 newspapers across the nation carried Lippmann's column, and eventually it won two Pulitzer Prizes.A prevailing theme throughout the essays in A Preface to Politics is that successful politicians are those who know how to tap into public needs and give voice to the concerns of the common man. The inherent logic and intellectual respectability of any particular policy are less important, Lippmann says, than its ability to arouse the emotions and express the deep feelings of a constituency. He points to Theodore Roosevelt as the prime example in his day of a politician who understood how to rally the public behind a cause.He also comments extensively on socialism, which was a rising political force in the beginning of the 20th century. Though he felt some sympathy with the socialist cause in this early work, he also astutely points out its many weaknesses. Later in his career, Lippmann turned completely away from socialism.A book of both historical interest and of enduring insights into the political process, A Preface to Politics will enhance the bookshelves of journalists, political scientists, historians, and all who value good writing.

Scott Nearing lived one hundred years, from 1883 to 1983--a life spanning most of the twentieth century. In his early years, Nearing made his name as a formidable opponent of child labor and military imperialism. Having been fired from university jobs for his independence of mind, Nearing became a freelance lecturer and writer, traveling widely through Depression-era and post-war America to speak with eager audiences. Five-time Socialist candidate for president Eugene V. Debs said, "Scott Nearing! He is the greatest teacher in the United States." Concluding that it would be better to be poor in the country than in New York City, Scott and Helen Nearing moved north to Vermont in 1932 and commenced the experiment in self-reliant living that would extend their fame far and wide. They began to grow most of their own food, and devised their famous scheme for allocating the day's hours: one third for "bread work" (livelihood), one third for "head work" (intellectual endeavors), and one third for "service to the world community." Scott (who'd grown up partly on his grandfather's Pennsylvania farm) taught Helen (who was raised in suburbia, groomed for a career as a classical violinist) the practical skills they would need: working with tools, cultivating a garden and managing a woodlot, and building stone and masonry walls. For the rest of their lives, the Nearings chronicled in detail their "good life," first in Vermont and ultimately on the coast of Maine, in a group of wonderful books--many of which are now being returned to print by Chelsea Green in cooperation with the Good Life Center, an educational trust established at the Nearings' Forest Farm in Harborside, Maine, to promote their ongoing legacy. With a new foreword by activist historian Staughton Lynd, The Making of a Radical is freshly republished-Scott Nearing's own story, told as only he could tell it.

In 1919 Charlotte Anita Whitney, a wealthy white woman, received one of the first Communist Labor Party membership cards for the charter group of the northern California Communist Labor Party. Less than a decade later in Berkeley, California, a Jewish woman named Dorothy Ray Healey became a card-carrying member of the Young Communist League. Nearly forty years later, in 1966, Kendra Claire Harris Alexander, a mixed-race woman, enlisted with the Los Angeles branch of the Communist Party, determined to promote class equality. In Gendering Radicalism, Beth Slutsky examines how American leftist radicalism was experienced through the lives of these three women who led the California branches of the Communist Party from its founding in 1919 to its near dissolution in 1992. Separately, each woman represents a generation of the membership and activism of the party. Collectively, Slutsky argues, their individual histories tell the story of one of the most infamous organizations this country has ever known and in a broader sense represent the story of all women who have devoted their lives to radicalism in America. Slutsky considers how gender politics, California's political climate, coalitions with other activist groups and local communities, and generational dynamics created a grassroots Communist movement distinct from the Communist parties in the Soviet Union and Europe. An ambitious comparative study, Gendering Radicalism demonstrates the continuity and changes of the party both within and among three generations of its female leaders' lives.