Chicago Socialism

This comprehensive history examines more than a century of politics and protests from centennial garment workers to millennials with megaphones. As the major industrial center of the Midwest, Chicago provided a welcome home for Socialism in America. The city provided a soapbox for firebrand speechmaking, a home for political exiles, and a springboard for activism. When Josephine Conger-Kaneko began printing The Socialist Woman in 1909 and then ran for alderwoman in 1914, she could appeal to an audience and an electorate sympathetic to the Socialist Party in unprecedented numbers. But Chicago was also a stronghold of mercantile and political interests that were strongly opposed to the Socialist Party. As a result, the city frequently served as a pressure cooker for the nation's economic and ideological tension. That tension boiled over in incidents like the 1886 Haymarket Riot, the 1894 Pullman Strike, and the 1919 Race Riots. And that same tension continues to dictate the terms of engagement for contemporary protest movements and labor disputes.