Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist

Name: Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist
Author: W. A. Swanberg
ISBN: 9780684147680

W. A. Swanberg

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Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist

W. A. Swanberg

award won

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In this first major biography of Norman Thomas, W. A. Swanberg recounts in fascinating detail the career of an extraordinary man, a man who believed that a better world was possible and who fought throughout his life to bring that world into being. Swanberg tells of Thomas's early work as a clergyman in the New York slums; his fearless opposition to war; his many crusades against inequality and injustice; and his long struggle to unify the Socialist Party, of which he was the leading figure. The endless feuds of the American Socialist movement become absorbingly interesting in Swanberg's account. It might be said that Norman Thomas failed. He ran again and again for public office, six times as a candidate for the presidency, but his only victory was election to a New York school board. But Thomas made a large contribution to twentieth-century America. Many of the programs he advocated are now established in our national life. A tireless civic watchdog, he hounded a succession of presidents in good causes. A magnetic speaker, he became the voice of American conscience. Swanberg portrays a man of inexhaustible energy, whose wit and great charm eventually won him the affection of political enemies and whose courage and integrity were absolute.

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