Eugene V. Debs ran for president as part of the Socialist Party in 1904, 1908 and 1912, around the time A Tree Grows in Brooklyn takes place. He, along with his running partner, Emil Seidel (Ben Hanford in 1904), won 897, 011 votes out of the 92,228,496 people in the United States. Debs was a radicalists, his ideas were radical and he believed in sacrifice for them.
1912 was an important year for the Socialist Party. People were begginning to consider the idea, or at least recognize it. The Socialist Party's membership skyrocketed to its' highest population, about 118,000 people. It polled about 6% of the population in 1912 and there were more than 1000 socialists in government offices around the country.
This blog is very interesting because socialism is popular again. I am not sure if Betty Smith would have actually described herself as a socialist. She was certainly on the Left of politics. I'll have to read a biography.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the dissertation about this book and Betty Smith available on the web? It would be very useful for you.