Why is There No Socialism In the United States

by Werner Sombart, Michael Harrington (Foreword), C.T. Husbands (Editor)

Why is the United States the only advanced capitalist country with no labor party? This question is one of the great enduring puzzles of American political development, and it lies at the heart of a fundamental debate about the nature of American society. Tackling this debate head-on, Robin Archer puts forward a new explanation for why there is no American labor party-an explanation that suggests that much of the conventional wisdom about "American exceptionalism" is untenable. Conventional explanations rely on comparison with Europe. Archer challenges these explanations by comparing the United States with its most similar New World counterpart-Australia. This comparison is particularly revealing, not only because the United States and Australia share many fundamental historical, political, and social characteristics, but also because Australian unions established a labor party in the late nineteenth century, just when American unions, against a common backdrop of industrial defeat and depression, came closest to doing something similar. Archer examines each of the factors that could help explain the American outcome, and his systematic comparison yields unexpected conclusions. He argues that prosperity, democracy, liberalism, and racial hostility often promoted the very changes they are said to have obstructed. And he shows that it was not these characteristics that left the United States without a labor party, but, rather, the powerful impact of repression, religion, and political sectarianism.

Genres: Politics, History, The United States Of America, Nonfiction, Economics

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Werner Sombart was a German economist and sociologist, the head of the “Youngest Historical School” and one of the leading Continental European social scientists during the first quarter of the 20th century. Sombart's later writings reflect his personal philsophy and the anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime. In one of his last publications, A New Social Philosophy (1934), Sombart analyzed social problems “from the point of view of the national socialist [Nazi] way of thinking.”

Reviews

[Owlseyes]

1906 QUESTION: Why Is There No Socialism In The United States?

WERNER SOMBART's ANSWER: "on rafts of beef and apple pie, socialist utopias of every description go down to destruction"

[Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never gave a reason lol

[Efrén Ayón · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comprensiblemente desactualizado, al menos intenta hacer una investigación más o menos seria de su objeto de estudio y termina llegando a una conclusión lógica: los gringos no son socialistas porque en resumidas cuentas viven lo suficientemente bien como para anhelar la liberación que el socialismo les brinda a los desamparados. Hay quien dice que la obra de Lenin ha sido rebasada, bueno, pues esto es ANTES de Lenin, antes de que alguien uniera los puntos y sugiriera que lo que pasa en todos los estados que conforman nuestro planeta está íntimamente relacionado entre sí, antes de que se teorizara que el capitalismo muestra sus contradicciones con más fuerza no en los lugares más desarrollados de la metrópoli, sino en los menos desarrollados de la periferia, antes de que alguien explicara que cuando sus iniquidades se agudizan lo suficiente pueden evolucionar y buscar otras válvulas de escape para mantenerse en pie. Antes de que le pusiéramos nombre al imperialismo. No pasa inadvertido para mí que el autor no incluya en su estudio a la recientemente ‘emancipada’ comunidad negra a la que el capitalismo condenaba con especial dureza.

No había entonces socialismo en Estados Unidos, así como no lo hay ahora, porque no son esclavos que necesiten liberarse a sí mismos. Son los esclavistas.

[Jocris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es bueno, la verdad, pero esperaba muchísima más profundidad. La mitad del libro se basa en la comparación del estilo de vida del obrero americano frente al alemán, para concluir que el estilo de vida del alemán es bastante inferior (como ya se sabía).

Me parece también que no tratar el tema de la masonería y el protestantismo es dejar mucho en el tintero, así como la mentalidad americana como tal. Me ha gustado mucho el epílogo, pese a su corta extensión, ya escrito con más perspectiva y casi un siglo después.

Buscaré más libros que toquen este tema más en profundidad, ya que me parece algo a estudiar.

[JerryDeanHalleck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published before WW I and the most interesting part is the data comparing German and American workers back in 1910. USA workers were getting 2-3 times the real wages of the Germans. Hence, why there was no socialism.

[Leonardo Capponi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una joya introductoria a la sociología y sus métodos. Escrito en 1906 pero con elementos perfectamente extrapolables a la actualidad, lo recomiendo sinceramente. Le doy 4 estrellas simplemente por la predicción totalmente equivocada que realiza al final.

[Ben Mercure · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! Concise, well-argued, and based on empirical data, Sombart teaches us why Socialism had yet to meaningfully develop in America by 1906. Among the many reasons included political (basis of equality in US, duopoly of the two major parties), economic (compared with Germans, Americans make a lot of money and live quite comfortable lives), and social (American working class is treated with respect, Homestead Act released people from pressures of the city/industry) factors. Despite the fact that Sombart doesn’t think we’re better for it (“even American capitalism cannot deny that it holds its workers in a condition of slavery”) and ultimately claims “in the next generation Socialism in America will very probably experience the greatest possible explosion of its appeal,” his description of life in the 19th and early 20th centuries is illuminating. In terms of 21st century application, I find the argument re: respect of the working class being necessary for a calm society most pressing.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Statistics used to be a whole lot less rigorous, huh?

I picked this up at the library purely because Democratic Socialists of America founder Michael Harrington wrote the introduction, which was also the best part of the book. There's about a quarter of in the middle that I'd recommend skipping entirely, as it is purely tabulated statistics based on, in about equal proportion, extremely small samples and actual arithmetic mistakes (most of which the editors have fixed).

It excels, however, in providing a picture of the truly peculiar character of American society in the early 20th century as viewed by a German visitor. I was particularly struck by the statistical-anecdotal account of American laborers earning more than their European counterparts but simply spending more as well, almost exclusively on class-coded trappings such as fancier clothes and meals.