Eugene V. Debs
Citizen and Socialist
By Nick Salvatore
University of Illinois Press (1982), paperback available
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Indiana-born and raised, Eugene Debs (1855-1926), regarded by many as America’s premier labor advocate, was the leader of the Socialist party, five times Socialist candidate for president, outspoken defender of the rights of all workers, and a persistent defender of America’s democratic traditions. As Debs understood America’s problems, the concentration of economic power so obvious in the growth of giant corporations posed a serious threat to American democracy. In a public career that spanned five decades, Debs became one of the nation’s most vibrant personalities, most controversial reformers, and most persistently raised voices.
Writing as a biographer with a broad social perspective, and using new manuscript materials that reveal much about Debs’ personality, Salvatore offers a major reevaluation of Debs, the movements he launched, and his belief in American Socialism as an extension of the nation’s democratic traditions. Among the book’s highlights are Debs’ involvement in the meteoric rise and fall of the American Railway Union, his intense work with the Socialist party, his principled opposition to American participation in World War I, his subsequent imprisonment on charges of sedition, and his final presidential campaign—from behind bars at the Atlanta (Georgia) Federal Penitentiary.
The book’s main achievement, however, is to show with sensitivity and detail the significant relationship between Debs’ public image and his private life as child, sibling, husband, lover, and lifelong citizen of Terre Haute, Indiana. The Debs who emerges from these pages is neither the wistful curiosity footnoted in our traditional histories nor the glorified hero of his staunchest advocates. Salvatore’s Debs, weaknesses intact, is a complex and intriguing man, one frustrated and angered by the glaring inequities of this new economic order, yet more willing than most to risk his career to preserve the essence of this democratic society.
Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist received the Bancroft Prize in American History (1983) and the John H. Dunning Prize in American History (1984).
What others have said about EUGENE V. DEBS: Citizen and Socialist
“Salvatore provides a fresh and robust perspective on his life…[and] his essential portrait of Debs is credible and exciting.” Newsday (Long Island, NY)
“This is biography at its best.” Eric Foner for the History Book Club
“In this stunning book, Salvatore sets Debs firmly within the central traditions of United States political and social history and depicts, as never before, the triumph and tragedy that characterized the socialist leader’s personal and public life.” American Historical Review
“A major contribution to biographical literature…likely to stand for some time as the definitive biography of Debs.” Choice
“Nick Salvatore, then, has written more than a good book, he has written good history…he has brought a man and his time back to speak to the present.” Worcester (MA) Sunday Telegram
“The Bancroft Prize-winning biography by Cornell historian Nick Salvatore differs from all of its predecessors in…its persuasive analysis of aspects of 19th-century American culture which debs drew upon for his own ideas.” New York Times Book Review
“Salvatore’s book is thorough, sensitive and provocative—all a fine biography should be.” St. Petersburg (FL) Times
“Nick Salvatore’s biography is very solid work….The Debs who emerges is a flawed human being—very flawed—yet an extraordinary person: a man deficient in self-knowledge, as public figures usually are, but also a great tribune. New York Review of Books