Portland State University PDXScholar University Honors Theses University Honors College 2014 Love's Labour's Lost: A History of the Question "Why is there No Socialism in the United States?" Alexander M. Dunphy Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/honorstheses Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Dunphy, Alexander M., "Love's Labour's Lost: A History of the Question "Why is there No Socialism in the United States?"" (2014). University Honors Theses. Paper 41. https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.93 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible:
[email protected]. LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST: A HISTORY OF THE QUESTION “WHY IS THERE NO SOCIALISM IN THE UNITED STATES?” by Alexander M. Dunphy An undergraduate honors thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in University Honors and History Thesis Adviser David A. Horowitz Portland State University 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………..………………...1 PART ONE: Roast Beef and Apple Pie Radicals and Reformers in an Irreconcilable Reality, 1900s-1940s………………............………8 PART TWO: No Feudalism, No Socialism Consensus Scholars and the American Ethos, 1950s-1960s………..………..………………..…30 PART THREE: History from the Bottom Up The New Left’s Search for a Usable Past of U.S. Socialism, 1960s-1970s…...…….……..……46 PART FOUR: The End of History and the End of Exceptionalism Cultural Studies, Neoconservatives and Socialism’s Plight, 1970s-2000s.…..…............….....…69 CONCLUSION ..………………………………………………………....…..………....………87 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……..………………...……………...………………..……………....……..93 INTRODUCTION There are certain questions in the intellectual discourse of a nation that never seem to go away.