"Why is there no socialism in the United States?" We can best deal with this age-old question, writes Brian Lloyd, by rephrasing it. In this provocative rethinking of American radicalism, Lloyd asks instead: What happened to Marx's methods and concepts when American radicals tried to put them into practice?

As an answer, Lloyd offers a detailed analysis of the Marxian doctrine that Debs-era socialists tried to understand and put to use in changing American society. He highlights the amicable relationship that developed between Marxism and pragmatism, showing how this courtship ultimately impoverished the radicals who cultivated it.

The poverty of American Marxism, Lloyd concludes, was above all an ideological condition - the result of radical's having imbibed far too little, rather than too much, of the Marxism of Marx.