prof. johnson: there were a lot of socialists talking about it broadly. they were wrestling with, how to we come up with systems where distribution could be more fair. more equal. as a lot of socialists were talking about that. it was really crow marx who came along in the 19th century looking at it historically and said there is this march of capitalism and ultimately he believed capitalism had gone awry and was exploitive. thinking about it in terms of the march of history, he believed class struggle would bring about a revolution. for him, it was a revolutionary, immediately kind of socialism than theorists who attacked about it earlier. this was in response to the industrial revolution and these ideas from europe started to come to the united states and change the political landscape. that was socialism. to think about classical society with a more fair, distribution of wealth devoid of capitalism. these were ideas that took a lot of traction in the 19th century and through immigrants and other

prof. johnson: my research is focused on the pacific northwest. i focused on washington and oregon on and ohio and western montana. what struck me when i started to poke around was eugene debs, the famous face of american socialism. the socialist party of america's candidate for president five times. once from jail, which is interesting. eugene debs got steadily increasing electoral results with the kind of common aiding culminating moment being in 1912 , where nationally he got about 6% of the vote, just shy of one million votes. that is interesting and remarkable in itself. what struck me was in the northwest, he got almost 10% of the vote so clearly something was happening where regionally there was more interest and more emphasis. i argued in my book that really it was the boom and bust economic cycles of the northwest. it was the power of being involved in the extractive industries like timber and mining, which could be very exploitive labor. socialists found an attentive audience because thes

prof. johnson: he appealed to labor. eugene debs could give a great speech and he knew how to play to the audience. in some ways, socialism at the time might have met -- meant simple answers for complex problems. you did not have to read marks marx that closely. went to jail and was radicalized there. andound himself radicalized was drawn to social politics but what set him apart was being a great oratory. a red or a titian. he really studied this message. labor was having a hard time. he ultimately emerged as one of the voices of labor. this is not to say others were not important. but he is great latitude with those kind of folks, courting labor and the labor vote. was the high point of the movement? prof. johnson: probably 1912, when eugene debs garnered about 12%. probably the most of any socialist. striking into important. so, 1912 was probably the high point and i will say there was always this sense for the readlist party, if you pamphlets and newspapers, they always believed the next electi

prof. johnson: there were a lot of socialists talking about it broadly.y were wrestling with, how to we come up with systems where distribution could be more fair. more equal. as a lot of socialists were talking about that. it was really crow marx who came