{"product_id":"american-socialist-the-life-and-legacy-of-eugene-v-debs-shawn-gude-hardcover","title":"American Socialist: The Life and Legacy of Eugene V. Debs -- Shawn Gude, Hardcover","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe first popular biography of Eugene Debs, the railroad worker turned radical visionary whose leadership helped elect more than a thousand Socialists across the country during the Progressive Era and inspired generations of Americans to fight back against the power of the rich over our politics and our lives.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBefore Bernie Sanders, before Zohran Mamdani, America's favorite socialist was Eugene Debs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThere was a time, a little more than 100 years ago, when some 1,200 Socialists held elected office across the United States. Wisconsin had a Socialist congressman in Washington. Ministers in Oklahoma preached the gospel of \"Christian socialism\" at revival-style gatherings come summertime. And Eugene V. Debs--part working-class agitator, part radical prophet--received nearly a million votes when he ran for president from behind bars. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEven opponents would describe Debs as Christlike. Born in Indiana in 1855, he'd dropped out of school at fourteen to work on the railroad. He'd seemed a rising star in the Democratic Party: an optimistic moderate who urged respectability and compromise. But this was the Gilded Age: an era of corporate tycoons and outrageous sums of money in politics, of grueling hours and few (if any) rights for workers. And when, in 1894, the president sent thousands of troops to break a railroad strike Debs had helped organize, he was radicalized. He emerged from a six-month prison sentence as a crusader, a stirring orator who would soon see all forms of unaccountable power--rich over poor, men over women, white over Black, colonizer over colonized--as poisonous to human freedom. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCofounding the Socialist Party of America, Debs would spend the rest of his life striving to convince his countrymen that being an American \u003ci\u003eand\u003c\/i\u003e a socialist was the most natural thing in the world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt wouldn't be easy. He would suffer from chronic illness, lose friends, enrage allies, and risk his marriage. But he would also spark a profound shift in the American consciousness. Today, the ideals he spent his life fighting for are more popular than at any point since his death. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA rousing, poignant, intimately human tale of struggle against the odds, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Socialist\u003c\/i\u003e is a stunning portrait of one man's radicalization--and of the country he radicalized in turn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Shawn Gude\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Simon \u0026amp; Schuster\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/13\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.83d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781668056738\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/03\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShawn Gude is a former editor at \u003ci\u003eJacobin \u003c\/i\u003eand author of \u003ci\u003eAmerican Socialist\u003c\/i\u003e. Born in Iowa and a proud product of its public schools, he lives with his wife in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Shawn Gude","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67567705260260,"sku":"9781668056738","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0611\/9587\/8628\/files\/9781668056738.jpg?v=1791963992","url":"https:\/\/bookandmortar.com\/products\/american-socialist-the-life-and-legacy-of-eugene-v-debs-shawn-gude-hardcover","provider":"BookandMortar","version":"1.0","type":"link"}