Trotskyism in the United States: Historical Essays and Reconsiderations

by Paul Le Blanc (Editor), Alan Wald (Editor), George Breitman (Editor)

Overview

In the new edition of this definitive work on the history of the revolutionary socialist current in the United States that came to be identified as "American Trotskyism," Paul Le Blanc offers fresh reflections on this history for scholars and activists in the twenty-first century. Includes a preface written especially for the new edition of this distinctive work.

Paul Le Blanc is a professor of History at La Roche College and author of Choice Award–winning book A Freedom Budget for All Americans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608466856
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Alan Wald: Among Alan Wald’s widely acclaimed writings is The New York Intellectuals (1987).
Paul Le Blanc: Paul Le Blanc is a professor of History at La Roche College, has written on and participated in the U.S. labor, radical and civil rights movements, and is author of such books as Marx, Lenin and the Revolutionary Experience, and Lenin and the Revolutionary Party.
George Breitman: George Breitman (1916-86) edited internationally influential volumes of works by Malcolm X and Leon Trotsky.

Table of Contents

Part I. Outlines and Essentials
1. Trotskyism in the United States: The First Fifty Years
2. The Liberating Influence of the Transitional Program
3. George Novack, 1905-92: Meaning a Life
Part II: Reconsiderations
1. Leninism in the United States and the Decline of American Trotskyism
2. From the Old Left to the New Left and Beyond: The Legacy and Prospects for Socialism in the United States.
3. The End of “American Trotskyism”? Problems in History and Theory

Editorial Reviews

"Despite my carpings and criticisms I found Trotskyism in the United States quite fascinating. It should be borne in mind that it was originally published in 1996, and some of its assumptions and conclusions need to be related to the situation twenty years ago. It is useful as a guide to many of the Trotskyist activists, not all of them necessarily well-known. In several ways the lives of the Trotskyists, known or obscure, are more interesting than the now-forgotten policies they endlessly debated and disagreed about. Their experiences, both in and out of “the movement”, say a lot about what was happening in American society generally in the period concerned."
—Jim Burns, Northern Review of Books


"Despite my carpings and criticisms I found Trotskyism in the United States quite fascinating. It should be borne in mind that it was originally published in 1996, and some of its assumptions and conclusions need to be related to the situation twenty years ago. It is useful as a guide to many of the Trotskyist activists, not all of them necessarily well-known. In several ways the lives of the Trotskyists, known or obscure, are more interesting than the now-forgotten policies they endlessly debated and disagreed about. Their experiences, both in and out of “the movement”, say a lot about what was happening in American society generally in the period concerned."
—Jim Burns, Northern Review of Books

From the Publisher