Shawn Gude, "American Socialist"

Eugene V. Debs ran for President of the United States as a socialist five times. The first in 1900, the last in 1920, when he received close to a million votes. Shawn GudeS, a native of Iowa, a former editor of Jacobin, and a current resident of New York City, is the author of a Debs biography titled "American Socialist." In his introduction, Gude writes: "The story of Eugene V. Debs' life is the story of one man's radicalization, and of the country he helped radicalize in turn." Debs dropped out of school at age 14. His base of operations and his hometown was Terre Haute, Indiana. Shawn Gude tells about his union activities, his presidential campaigns, and why he was sent to prison twice, once for six months and the second time for over two years, before his sentence was commuted by President Harding in the early 1920s.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices