xvi, 307 pages ; 21 cm

This work is a short, sharp, irreverent rejoinder to right-wing red-baiting. A few months before the 2010 midterms, Newt Gingrich described the socialist infiltration of American government and media as "even more disturbing than the threats from foreign terrorists." The author offers an unapologetic retort to the return of red-baiting in American political life, arguing that socialism has a long, proud, American history. Tom Paine was enamored of early socialists, Horace Greeley employed Karl Marx as a correspondent, and Helen Keller was an avowed socialist. This book gives Americans back a crucial aspect of their past and makes a forthright case for socialist ideas today. -- Publisher's description

Includes index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Preface and acknowledgements: Whitman, Sylvie and the Emmas -- "More of a socialist than I thought": Walt Whitman and a very American ism -- "A broader patriotism": Thomas Paine and the promise of red republicanism -- Reading Marx with Abraham Lincoln: Utopian socialists, German communists and other republicans -- A legal and peaceable revolution of the mind: The socialism that did happen here -- "Simply a stupid piece of despotism": How socialists saved the first amendment -- For jobs and freedom: The "militant radical" socialist who dared to dream of a march on Washington -- Afterword: "But what about democratic left politics?'' -- A note on sources -- Index

"A few months before the 2010 midterms, Newt Gingrich described the socialist infiltration of American government and media as "even more disturbing than the threats from foreign terrorists." John Nichols offers an unapologetic retort to the return of red-baiting in American political life -- arguing that socialism has a long, proud, American history. Tom Paine was enamored of early socialists, Horace Greeley employed Karl Marx as a correspondent, and Helen Keller was an avowed socialist. The "S" Word gives Americans back a crucial aspect of their past and makes a forthright case for socialist ideas today." -- P. [4] of cover

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