Socialist Gym Rats Fought to End Slavery in America
Veterans of the 1848 German revolution immigrated to America with three passions burning in their hearts: barbells, beer, and socialism.
7 Articles by: Devin Thomas O’Shea
Devin Thomas O’Shea’s writing has appeared in the Nation, Protean, Current Affairs, Boulevard, and elsewhere.
The Luddites Were Onto Something
England’s Luddites are often dismissed as kooky technophobes. In reality, theirs was a gutsy pre-Marxist workers’ movement that prioritized people and nature over private property.
“Girls, We Can’t Lose!”: In 1930s St Louis, Black Women Workers Went on Strike and Won
During the Great Depression, St Louis’s Funsten Nut Factory was racially divided. Black workers, mostly women, worked harder and made less than their white counterparts. So they went on strike — and got their white coworkers to join them on the picket line.
From Slavery Abolition to Public Education, German Radicals Made American History
The United States has forgotten the radical German American immigrant socialists who spilled blood for antislavery and other liberatory causes.
Mark Twain’s Sympathies Lay With the Working Class
At the height of his fame, Mark Twain schmoozed with robber barons like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. But he remained sharply critical of the unequal system they presided over.
A Busch Beer Heir, Once Queen of a Racist Pageant for St Louis Elites, Is Running for Senate
Heir to the Busch family fortune, Trudy Busch Valentine was once crowned queen of St Louis’s Veiled Prophet Ball, an annual event at which wealthy good old boys made toasts to racism and strikebreaking. Now she wants to join another elite club: the Senate.
Every July, We Should Celebrate the St Louis Commune
In July 1877, workers in St Louis waged a general strike that saw them briefly take the reins of power. Frightened elites compared it to the Paris Commune — and we should celebrate this extraordinary moment of radical democracy today.