Why Is the United States Hostile to Socialism?
The question asked by Werner Sombart in 1906 grew in relevance as the 20th century progressed. Why are leftist politics anathema to Washington – both at home and abroad?
‘The view among European socialists was that the US was an outlier, and in a bad way’
Adam Smith is Edward Orsborn Professor of US Politics & Political History at the University of Oxford
Marx and Engels could never quite decide whether the advanced development of capitalism in the United States would make it more or less susceptible to socialist revolution. Might the relatively wide franchise and availability of land make hierarchies based on the accumulation of capital intolerable, or would it hamper the development of class consciousness? By the early 20th century, the general view among European socialists was that the US was an outlier, and in a bad way. The German sociologist Werner Sombart’s 1906 book asked Why is there no socialism in the United States? Sombart concluded that ethnic divisions fatally weakened the development of class consciousness.
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