"This work sheds light on the chief factors that explain the failure of socialists to establish a durable party in the United States and provides greater insights into American society and politics.

Drawing on rich contrasts with other industrialized countries and extensive comparisons within the United States at the state and city level, the authors eschew conventional explanations of socialism's demise to present a fuller understanding of how multiple factors - American values, political structure, 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"--BOOK JACKET.