It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States

Seymour Martin Lipset, Gary Marks, Burton Craige Professor of Political Science Gary Marks

W.W. Norton & Company, 2000 - Political Science - 379 pages

Parties calling themselves Socialist, Social-Democratic, Labor, or Communist have been major forces in every democratic country in the world, yet they have played a surprisingly insignificant role in American politics. Why the United States, the most developed capitalist industrial society and hence, ostensibly, fertile ground for socialism, should constitute an exception has been a critical question of American history and political development.

In this probing work the authors draw on rich contrasts with other English-speaking countries and extensive comparisons within the United States at the state and city levels, eschewing conventional explanations of socialism's demise to present a fuller understanding of how multiple factors -- political structure, American values, and the split between the Socialist party and mainstream unions -- combined to seal socialism's fate. Further chapters examine the distinctive character of American trade unions, immigration and the fragmentation of the American working class, socialist strategies, and repression, concluding with a penetrating analysis of American political exceptionalism up to the present day.

About the author

Seymour Martin Lipset: March 18, 1922 - December 31, 2006 American political theorist and sociologist, Seymour Martin Lipset, was born in New York City on March 18, 1922, and educated at City College of New York and Columbia University. Lipset taught at a number of universities, including the University of Toronto, Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, and Stanford University. A senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, he was also a member of the International Society of Political Psychology, the American Political Science Association, and the American Academy of Science. Among Lipset's many works are "Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics" (1960), "Class, Status, and Power" (1953), and "Revolution and Counterrevolution" (1968). He also contributed articles to a number of magazines, including The New Republic, Encounter, and Commentary. Lipset has received a number of awards for his work, including the MacIver Award in 1962, the Gunnar Myrdal Prize in 1970, and the Townsend Harris Medal in 1971. Lipset died on December 31, 2006, as a result of complications following a stroke. He was 84.

Bibliographic information

• Title: It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States
• Authors: Seymour Martin Lipset, Gary Marks, Burton Craige Professor of Political Science Gary Marks
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000
• ISBN: 0393040984, 9780393040982
• Length: 379 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism