Search

The article highlights the concept of political economy coined by well-known socio-economist Horace Greeley. Historians of economic thought, in customarily appointing Henry C. Carey dean of the American School, have generally neglected the high spokesman of discontent, Horace Greeley, founder and editor of the "New York Tribune." Horace Greeley's life and political economy stand out as clearer expressions of a young America in its middle period transition. Greeley was an awakened figure of his time. Never the totally eccentric dreamer he is frequently considered, he found himself aware that narrow parochialisms were breaking up, and he aimed to conform society to the changes under way. He saw his country as the great chance for righting wrongs- and he wished to make it a proving ground for social experimentation. Thus, he devoted his life and his paper to teaching the people to seek freedom by building a wealthy nation in which resources should be correctly utilized and special privileges should be destroyed.

Fifty years ago the labor economist and historian Louis Levine (Lorwin) explained the origins of the radical unionism and syndicalism which the Lawrence textile strike of 1912 had brought to the American nation's attention. Rather than viewing American syndicalism as the product of a few inspired individuals or as a sudden decision to imitate French ideas and methods, Levine insisted that working-class radicalism could only be understood by a proper examination of United States economic and political developments. Unfortunately, in the half century since Levine's seminal article, too few historians have chosen to investigate his hypothesis. The field has been left to labor economists more concerned with the nature of industrial relations and the internal history of individual trade unions than with the dynamics of historical change. This paper will apply the historical method and research into unused or seldom used documents to analyze the forces which impelled the working class in a part of the American West to adopt socialism and syndicalism.