Looking Backward: America’s Love-Hate Relationship with Socialism | National Humanities Center

Humanities in Class: Webinar Series

Looking Backward: America’s Love-Hate Relationship with Socialism

Socialism; United States Politics; American History; McCarthyism

Beverly Gage (Professor of History and American Studies, Yale University)

March 10, 2022

The word “socialism” has made its way into American politics a lot recently. But "socialist" largely remains a dirty, and often misunderstood, term in the realm of U.S. politics. During the Cold War, anti-Soviet sentiments and McCarthyism, a campaign against alleged communists in the U.S., are largely to thank for that. So what is socialism? Beverly Gage traces the evolution of the concept of socialism in American history, from the utopian vision of Bellamy’s “Looking Backward” in the late 19th century to the weaponization of the term in 21st century politics.


Subjects

Political Science / History / Socialism / United States Politics / American History / McCarthyism /

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0