The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene Victor Debs Book

When young lefties ask me what they should read (which has happened fairly regularly these past 10 years), I usually tell them: read history, not theory. I would rather they read Ten Days That Shook the World than State and Revolution, because the former will embed ideas in events in a way that will resonate more than pure ideas will. History helps to teach us that no time is particularly special and that we can always take lessons from what came before. History is comforting, because hard times have come before. History is challenging, because people have risen to the challenge before, so why aren't we?

I wish everyone could read this book. Debs is my hero and I am of course biased in that regard. But Debs is such a singular figure, and the story of his times so resonant, that even those who are not socialists could find a lot to learn here. For example, we usually lose; Debs lost again and again and again. And factionalism is inherent to left intellectual space. Debs went to his grave torn between the Socialist party, dying and drifting towards the right, and the communists, whose parties were effectively illegal and who had no real-world influence on events. Throughout it all, what stands out is Debs's integrity and his incredible likeability; again and again, fierce enemies of his political and labor positions can't help but wax on about what a great person he is. And the arc of the story is worthy of Hollywood, with his defiant speech in the Canton courtroom leading to the natural denouement of his declining health and final years.

Ginger is an able chronicler, and the text seems strangely modern for a book published in 1949. This is a book to savor, a brilliant look at a singular life and a picture of a period of American history that is typically untaught in schools and ignored in private life. I can't recommend it highly enough.