Norman Thomas - The Last Idealist

Fülszöveg

"Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist iwhoJIy admirable: thoughtful, full of insight, faip-minded—a soperb p=rformance oh all counts .-rvlt-will be consulted for yeaps by tftase^ntersstsd m a great aad timeless theme, namely, the relation of morality and politics." ' - " '
•->' V ^Carey MdWilliams
"Mr. Swahjberg has helped us toisee why Thdmas could lose every election but accumulate a vast following: There is much original documeniciion in this book whiich will make it ind^spensable to any understanding of why the Socialist Partyf failed to gain a rriass membership. And there are fascinating glimpses of Thornas the ppv^ jmar#_Altogjgther a most readable book."
">?4- , —^ ' * - —Joseph P. Lash
"Norman Thomas is'a truly penetrating story of a persistent idealist, and William Swanberg i$ the ideal person to tell itrthis is an illuminated portrait of a great-hearted man fighting for kit liberating causes, which are the causes that are always lost. Comprehensive and compelling, direct... Tovább

Fülszöveg

"Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist iwhoJIy admirable: thoughtful, full of insight, faip-minded—a soperb p=rformance oh all counts .-rvlt-will be consulted for yeaps by tftase^ntersstsd m a great aad timeless theme, namely, the relation of morality and politics." ' - " '
•->' V ^Carey MdWilliams
"Mr. Swahjberg has helped us toisee why Thdmas could lose every election but accumulate a vast following: There is much original documeniciion in this book whiich will make it ind^spensable to any understanding of why the Socialist Partyf failed to gain a rriass membership. And there are fascinating glimpses of Thornas the ppv^ jmar#_Altogjgther a most readable book."
">?4- , —^ ' * - —Joseph P. Lash
"Norman Thomas is'a truly penetrating story of a persistent idealist, and William Swanberg i$ the ideal person to tell itrthis is an illuminated portrait of a great-hearted man fighting for kit liberating causes, which are the causes that are always lost. Comprehensive and compelling, direct and dramatic, it fulfills.every ^omise of an important biography."
—Louis Untermeyer
"A heartwarming, provQcative, and exciting portrayal of the man often called America's Conscience. Every American concerned with justice and ^ freedom should read this book,",
—Harry Fleischman


PUBLISHED BY ^ . CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS/NEW YORK
$14.95
I
n this first major biography of Norman Thomas, Pulitzer Prize winner W. A. Swanberg recounts in fascinating detail the career of an extraordinary man, a man who believed that a better world was possible and who fought throughout his life to bring that world into being.
Mr. Swanberg tells of Thomas's early work as a clergyman in the New York slums; his fearless opposition to war; his many crusades against inequality and injustice; and his long struggle to unify the Socialist Party, of which he was the leading figure. The endless feuds of the American Socialist movement become absorbingly interesting in Mr. Swan-berg's account.
It might be said that Norman Thomas failed. He ran again and again for public office, six times as a candidate for the Presidency; but his only victory was election to a New York school board. But Thomas made a large contribution to twentieth century America. Many of the programs he advocated are now established in our national life. A tireless civic watchdog, he hounded a succession of Presidents in good causes. A magnetic speaker, he became the voice of American conscience.
In Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist W. A. Swanberg portrays a man of inexhaustible energy, whose wit and great charm eventually won him the affection of political enemies and whose courage and integrity were absolute.
jacket design by greta franzen
W. A. Swanberg has won an international reputation as a biographer and historian of American subjects. Well known for Luce and Flis Empire, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, Citizen Hearst and Pulitzer, he is also the author of Dreiser; Jim Fish The Career of an Improbable Rascal; First Blood: The Story of Fort Sumter; and Sickles the Incredible.
Mr. Swanberg was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1907, and educated at the University of Minnesota. He came to New York in 1935, and while writing for a variety of popular magazines became interested in Civil War history. This interest led to Sickles the Incredible and, later, to First Blood. These books, like the later biographies, show the author's taste for controversial subjects. Mr. Swanberg is married and has two children. He lives in Newtown, Connecticut.
jacket front: Photograph by Leonard Mc-Combe, Time-Life Picture Agency © Time Inc. Vissza