The Long Detour: The History and Future of the American Left

The Long Detour is an intellectually engaging overview of the history of socialism in the United States and of the continuing relevance of socialist principles today. Historian and journalist James Weinstein, a lifelong socialist and one-time Communist, takes readers from the movement's early years of utopian communities, through the heyday of engagement with the makers of corporate America, and into the future of a de-industrializing era. He contends that socialism as a political movement was sidetracked when Communist domination of the American left stifled creative social thought and diverted the traditional left into sterile disputes over the true nature of the Soviet Union. And he argues that while "real existing socialism" - which is what the Soviets called their system - is dead, the humane social principles articulated by Marx and the leaders of the pre-1917 socialist movement remain vitally important to those on the left who seek to realize the promise of American democracy.

From Publishers Weekly
Although long tainted by association with disloyalty and nutty sectarianism, socialism is actually as American as apple pie, according to this engaging apologia for the left. Weinstein, ex-Communist, founder of Socialist Review and publisher of In These Times, argues that socialists were once a prominent and positive force in American democracy: they energized the labor movement, won elective office and proposed reforms-the eight hour day, unemployment insurance, abolition of child labor, public ownership of utilities, progressive income taxes-that became the cornerstone of Progressive, New Deal and Great Society legislation. The left lost its way, Weinstein contends, after the Russian Revolution, when sterile debates about the Soviet Union, and Communists' subservience to Moscow, marginalized it from the American mainstream. Then, in the 1960s, the New Left squandered an opportunity to reenter mainstream politics by failing to articulate a broad social vision and embracing an outré lifestyle radicalism that alienated Middle America. Weinstein's clear prose, free of Leninist cant, examines a forgotten but vital aspect of American political history. Some of his criticisms of the left miss the mark (his complaint that "few New Leftists thought much about a different form of society" will surprise radical feminists and Deep Ecologists); and sometimes, as with his rehash of New Left factional infighting or his insistence that Soviet tyranny was "fundamentally incompatible" with Marx's ideas, he can't resist gnawing on old sectarian bones. Still, he makes a strong case for the importance of the left reclaiming its rightful place in American politics.
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The Los Angeles Times
"[Weinstein] writes with an elegance and a light touch uncommon among historians of the left."

James Weinstein is the founding editor and publisher of In These Times magazine, and was the founder of the Socialist Review. He is the author of several books, including The Decline of Socialism in America and The Corporate Ideal in the Liberal State. He lives in Chicago.