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Pacifist's Progress: Norman Thomas and the Decline of American Socialism
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 20, 2018
An interesting read on a largely unexamined part of American history. Norman Thomas' name and influence seems just large enough to be remembered by a chunk of his co-inhabitants of the early to mid 20th century - but by my estimation/experience has been largely untaught in contemporary America.
Johnpoll portrays Norman Thomas as a contentious, idealistic, and uncompromising reformer. In many ways he embodied the Social Gospel movement from its height to its exile and decline. His and its awkward relationship with the institutional church, the unions, the wider American left-wing, and the communist movement are all played up to the highest level. Thomas, while consistently able to bring about passion and loyalty in the people around him, is likewise incapable of either creating a shared value system, or keeping different groups together. He finds himself as the head of an ever-shrinking puritanical movement; inadvertently strengthening his opponents by his unwillingness to work or build a common ground with other people who didn't share his piety, his politics, or his values. Thomas, in this undesirable way, was ahead of his time.
It's a mark of the time of its writing that the book is entirely shaped around his professional life, and his reactions to and against the movements of his days. There's very little introspection, or family dynamics to be found. I gained little insight into "why" he did the things that he did and fought the fights he fought. His inner life isn't well illuminated in this book. It remains a rich read about an exceptional person and movement, and a cautionary tale.
Johnpoll portrays Norman Thomas as a contentious, idealistic, and uncompromising reformer. In many ways he embodied the Social Gospel movement from its height to its exile and decline. His and its awkward relationship with the institutional church, the unions, the wider American left-wing, and the communist movement are all played up to the highest level. Thomas, while consistently able to bring about passion and loyalty in the people around him, is likewise incapable of either creating a shared value system, or keeping different groups together. He finds himself as the head of an ever-shrinking puritanical movement; inadvertently strengthening his opponents by his unwillingness to work or build a common ground with other people who didn't share his piety, his politics, or his values. Thomas, in this undesirable way, was ahead of his time.
It's a mark of the time of its writing that the book is entirely shaped around his professional life, and his reactions to and against the movements of his days. There's very little introspection, or family dynamics to be found. I gained little insight into "why" he did the things that he did and fought the fights he fought. His inner life isn't well illuminated in this book. It remains a rich read about an exceptional person and movement, and a cautionary tale.
April 29, 2025
Really more of an intellectual biography of Thomas than a history of the SP. It's not very good. Some useful, if muddled details on the 1930s. As Frank A. Warren made clear in his rejoinder, Johnpoll is entirely unfair to Thomas about what were irreconcilable schisms of ideology between the Old Guard and the Militants. The final chapters stink for their cheap-shot Zionist biases, and the author's general comfort with the "new world order."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews