| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 134 words from this article are provided below; about 403 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

John Spargo and American Socialism. By Markku Ruotsila. (New York: Palgrave, 2006. ix, 336 pp. $75.00, ISBN 978-1-4039-7500-3.)

In this first biography of the socialist intellectual John Spargo (1876–1966), Markku Ruotsila tracks his colorful protagonist's odyssey from fin-de-siècle eclectic evolutionary Marxism to Goldwater Republicanism. Ruotsila demonstrates Spargo's importance for the history of American anticommunism, while advancing the seemingly paradoxical argument that his fiercely antiliberal polemics from the 1920s onward bespoke not creeping conservatism, but persistently social-democratic convictions. If not all readers are persuaded by that conclusion, they will nonetheless encounter here a fully rounded portrait of a figure who has typically been flatly portrayed as a right-winger in the early Socialist party (SP) and then lumped together with the World War I–era pro-war intellectuals who fully renounced their socialist faith.

. . .

There are about 403 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.