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Theodore Dreiser staked his reputation on fearless expression in his fiction, but he never was more outspoken than when writing about American politics, which he did prolifically. Although he is remembered primarily as a novelist, the majority of his twenty-seven books were nonfiction treatises. To Dreiser, everything was political. His sense for the hype and hypocrisies of politics took shape in reasoned but emphatic ruminations in his fiction and nonfiction on the hopes and disappointments of democracy, the temptations of nationalism and communism, the threat and trumpets of war, and the role of writers in resisting and advancing political ideas. Spanning a period of American history from the Progressive Era to the advent of the Cold War, this generous volume collects Dreiser's most important political writings from his journalism, broadsides, speeches, private papers, and long out-of-print nonfiction books. Touching on the Great Depression, the New Deal, and both World Wars as well as Soviet Russia and the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, these writings exemplify Dreiser's candor and his penchant for championing the defenseless and railing against corruption. Positing Dreiser as an essential public intellectual who addressed the most important issues of the first half of the twentieth century, these writings also navigate historical terrain with prescient observations on topics such as religion, civil rights, national responsibility, individual ethics, global relations, and censorship that remain particularly relevant to a contemporary audience. Editor Jude Davies provides historical commentaries that frame these selections in the context of his other writings, particularly his novels. |
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
Editorial Note
PART ONE: 1895-1910
Historical Commentary
America, Europe, and Cuba
Women's Suffrage
The Toil of the Laborer
Helps the Municipality Owes the Housewife
The Problem of the Dying Baby
The State of the Negro
The Day of Special Privileges
The Death of Francisco Ferrer
PART TWO: 1911-1928
Historical Commentary
From "The Girl in the Coffin"
From "Life, Art and America"
American Idealism and German Frightfulness
From "More Democracy or Less? An Inquiry"
Dreiser Sees No Progress
A Word Concerning Birth Control
Contribution to "The Rights of a Columnist: A Symposium on the Case of Heywood Broun versus the New York World"
From Dreiser Looks at Russia
PART THREE: 1929-1937
Historical Commentary
Dreiser Discusses Dewey Plan
John Reed Club Answer
Mooney and America
On the Communists and Their Platform
The American Press and American Political Prisoners
Speech on the Scottsboro Case
Interview with Nazife Osman Pasha
From Tragic America
Introduction to Harlan Miners Speak: Report on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields
America
The Child and the School
The "Is Dreiser Anti-Semitic?" Correspondence
Flies and Locusts
"They Shall Not Die" Indicts North as Well as the South
Contribution to "Where We Stand"
Dreiser Denies He Is Anti-Semitic
Contribution to "What Is Americanism" A Symposium on Marxism and the American Tradition"
Epic Technologists Must Plan
Mea Culpa!
Statement on Russia and the Struggle against Facism in Spain
Contribution to Symposium, "Is Leon Trotsky Guilty?"
From "A Conversation: Theodore Dreiser and John Dos Passos"
PART FOUR: 1938-1945
Historical Commentary
War Is a Racket
Equity between Nations
American Democracy against Facism
Loyalist Spain-July 1938
Statement on Anti-Semitism
The Dawn Is in the East
From "Civilization: Where? What?"
Theodore Dreiser and the Free Press
From America Is Worth Saving
From "Writers Declare: "We Have a War to Win!"
Broadcast to the People of...