American Gandhi: A. J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the Twentieth Century (Politics and Culture in Modern America) - Hardcover

Danielson, Leilah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081224639X ISBN 13: 9780812246391

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014

Synopsis

Winner of the 2017 Peace History Society Scott Bills Memorial Prize

When Abraham Johannes Muste died in 1967, newspapers throughout the world referred to him as the "American Gandhi." Best known for his role in the labor movement of the 1930s and his leadership of the peace movement in the postwar era, Muste was one of the most charismatic figures of the American left in his time. Had he written the story of his life, it would also have been the story of social and political struggles in the United States during the twentieth century.

In American Gandhi, Leilah Danielson establishes Muste's distinctive activism as the work of a prophet and a pragmatist. Muste warned that the revolutionary dogmatism of the Communist Party would prove a dead end, understood the moral significance of racial equality, argued early in the Cold War that American pacifists should not pick a side, and presaged the spiritual alienation of the New Left from the liberal establishment. At the same time, Muste was committed to grounding theory in practice and the individual in community. His open, pragmatic approach fostered some of the most creative and remarkable innovations in progressive thought and practice in the twentieth century, including the adaptation of Gandhian nonviolence for American concerns and conditions.

A biography of Muste's evolving political and religious views, American Gandhi also charts the rise and fall of American progressivism over the course of the twentieth century and offers the possibility of its renewal in the twenty-first.

About this title

About the Author:

Leilah Danielson is Associate Professor of History at Northern Arizona University.

Review:

"...the scope of its research and the sophistication of its analysis place American Gandhi among the finest biographies of American radicals.  Danielson makes sense of Muste's life by focusing on the creative tension between his 'messianic' or 'prophetic' outlook and his 'pragmatic method.'"  Kip Kosek, Modern Intellectual History

"Leilah Danielson's American Gandhi weaves the story of Muste's unlikely life (1885-1967) into a deeply informed biography and intellectual history touching on twentieth-century religion, labor and civil rights organizing, and radical pacifism.... [helping] us to understand how a viable American tradition of nonviolent direct action, available to all, came to be.  It deserves a wide readership."  Michael Honey, American Historical Review

"This definitive biography of Muste also encourages a reevaluation of the scholarship on twentieth-century American radicalism.  Danielson's analysis highlights the vibrancy and intensity of the labor movement of the 1920s and early 1930s, painting the period as one of great hope and experimentation... Muste's story similarly reveals deep yet generally overlooked connections between interwar labor militancy and postwar radical pacifism, challenging the perception of nonviolence as a purely middle-class project...Muste [was] much more than a peacemaking 'American Gandhi'; he was also a pivotal figure in the broad history of American radical dissent." Marian Mollin, Journal of American History

"Leilah Danielson's state-of-the-art political biography of A. J. Muste is a major work in the history of twentieth-century American radicalism. Comprehensive and engrossing throughout, it will be indispensable to those interested in the history of the modern American left, to those interested in the history of pacifism and nonviolence, and to those interested in the intersection of religion and dissent in twentieth-century America. American Gandhi is really going to be the Muste biography for this generation, and for a long time to come." Doug Rossinow, author of The Reagan Era: A History of the 1980s

"This first-rate study establishes A. J. Muste's significance by placing him in the rich context of left-wing politics and thought from World War I to themid-1960s. Leilah Danielson captures Muste's unique position as a figure who, by dint of his welcoming personality, could often transcend bitter sectarian conflicts and build coalitions which advanced common purposes. She explains why Muste became a beloved figure, even among Americans who disapproved of his politics." Michael Kazin, author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation and editor of Dissent magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 081224639X
• ISBN 13: 9780812246391
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 472