From Revolution to Reform: German-American Radicals and the Making of the American Labor Movement, 1848-1910
Mira Bokil-Hepp
13/11/27
This paper follows a group of German activists—some driven into exile, others emigrating by choice—who carried their radical revolutionary ideas to the United States. These ideas encountered resistance and hostility, but the American system also adapted, accommodated and changed in response to their forcefulness and organizational power. Although German-American radicals brought a revolutionary critique of industrial capitalism to 19th century United States, their movement failed to institutionalize socialism because American institutions and the popular press recast radical labor activism as a dangerous foreign threat; simultaneously, though, they were able to achieve key demands, such as the eight-hour workday, through moderate reform.
The paper is structured as follows. The first section examines conditions in Europe which gave rise to German-American labor activism and subsequent immigration of German radical activists to the United States. The paper then delves into how liberal, socialist ideals of German-American radicals were received in the United States, how they collided with American thought based on individualism, and how German-American radicals influenced the 8-hour workday movement. Finally, the paper explores how mainstream discourse in the United States turned on German-American radicals after the Haymarket incident, labeling them as foreign and sealing their fate at the gallows. Ultimately, however, the paper argues that the American system had to change, albeit the change was gradual.