It Didn't Happen Here

It Didn't Happen Here by Seymour Martin Lipset

Two of America's leading political sociologists explore a phenomenon of American political exceptionalism: the failure of the socialist movement in the United States. 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.

Seymour Martin Lipset is the Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Gary Marks is professor of political science and director of the Center for European Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780393040982
ISBN 10	0393040984
Title	It Didn't Happen Here
Author	Seymour Martin Lipset
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	WW Norton & Co
Year published	2000-07-17
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.