Volume 36, Number 4 · March 16, 1989
Sticking It Out
By Michael Kazin
The Long-Distance Runner: An Autobiography
by Michael Harrington
Henry Holt, 260 pp., $19.95
In his memoir of his life in the socialist movement during the last two decades, Michael Harrington calls American socialism a movement that 'was, and is, a historical failure.' He describes how he helped to bring about the merger of the two major American socialist organizations in 1981—resulting, he writes, in the 'largest democratic socialist group since about 1935,' with all of six thousand members. He once invited Democratic delegates to a socialist breakfast at the 1974 mid-term Democratic convention, 'and then stood, nervously embarrassed, in an almost empty room until the time came to end an event that never should have been begun.' Harrington is not bitter; he remains hopeful even as he describes his position as a political outsider. But he also implies that socialism in the United States has been more a convenient threat to be exploited by the right and center than a movement that might, someday, come to power.
Review, 3502 words
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