The Socialist Awakening
What's Different Now About the Left

“A person of the left, Judis specializes in speaking truth to liberals.”
—E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post

As the pandemic depression lays bare the failure of market capitalism worldwide, and as protesters flood the streets in unprecedented numbers seeking racial and economic equality, you can find something in common among many of those disillusioned with the way things are—socialism. How did this happen? Why now?

John B. Judis, himself a veteran of socialist movements, explores how an ideology thought to be long dead has taken hold as a broad movement among younger people dissatisfied with mainstream politics both on the right and the left, in America, Great Britain, and elsewhere in Europe and the world.

From Karl Marx to Eduard Bernstein, Eugene Debs to Victor Berger, Bernie Sanders to Jeremy Corbyn, The Socialist Awakening chronicles the rebirth of an idea driven by a rising anti-capitalist resentment among those looking to reclaim public power over the direction of private enterprise—an idea that has become urgent in the wake of the pandemic and the economic depression.

Published with support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

Read Nicholas Lemann’s Letter to the Reader