The Long Detour: The History And Future Of The American Left
by James Weinstein
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Book Summary Information
Author: James WeinsteinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-11-02
ISBN: 0813342511
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Basic Books
Book Reviews of The Long Detour: The History And Future Of The American Left
Book Review: The Detour has been much longer than the road of influence
Summary: 3 Stars
Though not obvious from the title, the book is largely devoted to an overview of the history of socialism, and by extension communism, in the U.S. Socialism gets a lot of credit in this account as being the basis for various social welfare measures that have made it into our laws since the turn of the 19th century. However, the rise of industrialism generated any number of large and vigorous protest movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the Knights of Labor, the Farmer's Alliance and the Populist Party, the Industrial Workers of the World, many labor groups including the craft unions of the AFL, the Progressives, and various forms of socialism. Though socialism made its last great statement in the election of 1912, it is a bit presumptuous to say that future legislation derived directly from socialism in this sea of protest.
There is no doubt that the Bolshevik revolution impacted the Left. The socialists splintered into Communist groups who could never come to grips with the realities versus the propaganda of the Russian experiment. The author diverts from the principal subject by devoting substantial time to the ruthlessness, miscalculations, and rationalities of the Stalin regime. But the effectiveness of the Left is hardly a case of self-derailment. It is a fact that the U.S. capitalist class backed by the state was perhaps the most repressive of any in the Western world towards those at odds with them. In those years of protest, the capitalist class could always rely on military and private security forces and reactionary courts to suppress protesters. In conjunction with the Russian revolution, the author could have mentioned the Alien and Sedition Acts or the Palmer raids that squashed the socialists and the IWW during and after WWI. Also, union density plummeted after WWI in the face of employer "Red Scare" tactics.
Since WWI the so-called Left in the U.S. has had few periods of much influence and those were situations where the state accommodated the Left only to the extent necessary to preserve the U.S. economic system with few changes. The Wagner Act in 1935 permitted the unionization of mass production industries; the War Labor Board in WWII basically made grievance systems mandatory in labor contracts in return for no-strike clauses. It should be noted that the Taft-Hartley amendment to the Wagner Act in 1947 rolled back many of the pro-labor parts of the Wagner Act. The so-called business-labor compact after WWII amounted to little more than high wages and good benefits for consumeristic workers with no loss of managerial prerogatives - hardly a leftist proposition.
It is difficult to get a handle on the exact timing for when the author contends that the Left was a factor versus being detoured. From the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 to WWI was only forty years - the era for most all leftward protest. If the rise of the CIO is included, then the time of Left influence is extended to about sixty years. But it has been 85 years since the suppression of the great steel strike of 1919 and nearly seventy since the rise of the CIO. In other words, the Left has been detoured longer than it has been a force.
The author does devote a chapter to issues that a revived Left needs to consider: foreign affairs, trade policy, education, health care, electoral reform, etc. He contrasts that needed broad-based approach to what he sees as the essential narrowness of the New Left of the 60s and 70s. He is especially wary of third-party efforts. He harkens back to the non-partisan league capturing North Dakota by running as Repubs or Dems.
It's difficult seeing many being satisfied with this book. It is not clear as to when or why the Left was relevant or not. The Left is now about as marginalized as it can be. It is hard to see an era three-quarters of a century ago, providing much insight into a prescription for reviving the Left. This is Weinstein's last book, but far from his best.
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