The American Worker and the Absurd Truth about Marxism

In 1906, Werner Sombart famously quipped that the ship of American socialism had crashed on the 'reefs of roast beef and apple pie'. Why did socialism never take ground in the USA? This volume opens with the first English translation of Karl Kautsky's 1906 long essay 'The American Worker', an extended response published in Die Neue Zeit to Sombart's 1905 essay 'Why Is There No Socialism in the United States?' Other essays and reviews are each marked by an effort to come to terms with the fact that Friedrich Engels's optimism that History would take care of class consciousness in the USA, has been proven misplaced.

Originally published as issue 4 of Volume 11(2003) of Brill's journal Historical Materialism. For more details on this journal, please click here.