Bridgeport's Socialist New Deal, 1915-36 (Working Class in American History) [Hardcover]

Cecelia Bucki (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2001 | Series: Working Class in American History

In November 1933, the Socialist Party of Bridgeport, Connecticut won a stunning victory in the municipal election, putting slate roofer Jasper McLevy in the mayor's seat and nearly winning control of the city council. In probing the factors that led to this electoral victory and its continuation, Bucki uncovers a legacy of activist unionism, business manipulation of local politics and taxes, and a growing debate over the public good that revealed how working people viewed their government and their own roles as citizens. As a backdrop to the evolving national developments of the New Deal, this study stands at the intersection of political, labor, and ethnic history and provides a new perspective on how working people affected urban politics in the inter-war era. "Bridgeport's Socialist New Deal, 1915-36" explores how labor gained first a foothold and then a stronghold in local politics as broad debates over taxes, budgets, city services, and the definition of public good pitted previously unengaged working-class citizens against local business leaders and traditional party elites. In the heat of the Great Depression, the skilled AFL craftsmen who made up the bulk of the city's Socialist Party stepped in to fill a political void created by the crumbling of mainstream parties, the disintegration of traditional modes of ethnic politics, and the fiscal crisis of the city. Representing the concerns of ethnic working-class communities only weakly allied to the mainstream American parties, the Bridgeport Socialists rode into office on a wave of popular antibusiness anger and New Deal enthusiasm. Once in office, McLevy and his party were hamstrung by legislative measures that gave substantial control of finances to local business leaders. Bucki details the compromise politics of Bridgeport and shows how the local party, after splitting from the Socialist Party of America in 1936, became more narrowly focused and reformist, though still serving as the voice of the working class. The Bridgeport Socialist Party's remarkable move from outsider critic to occupant of city hall illustrates the volatility of politics in the early depression years. It also reveals the curbing influence of conservative business and political interests, not only on the Bridgeport Socialists, but also on the more radical prongs of the New Deal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"During the depths of the Depression, Bridgeport, Connecticut voters elected a Socialist administration to city hall. This exhaustive study examines who those voters were and why they voted Socialist, rather than Republican or Democratic, in the initial year of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency. In extraordinary detail, Bucki probes the economic, social, and ethnic realities that defined status and power, or the lack thereof, as well as a growing dissatisfaction within the city's fragmented working class." -- Choice "This is a lively treatment of a little understood phenomenon, the election of socialists (or any other third party) to public office in American cities of the twentieth century." -- Paul Buhle, American Studies "Astutely argued and copiously documented with archival, newspaper, and oral history sources, this exploration of the coming to power and early years of a socialist administration in Bridgeport, Connecticut, offers an outstanding example of the strength of wedding social and political history on a local level." --The Journal of American History ADVANCE PRAISE: "In this impressive new study of Bridgeport, Connecticut, from World War I through the Great Depression, Cecelia Bucki directs our attention to where we haven't looked before, or at least not for a long time: to politics at the local rather than the national level, to members of the AFL rather than the CIO, and to the Socialist Party rather than the New Deal Democrats. Under her skillful guidance, the exceptional case of Socialist Bridgeport sheds new light on the entire New Deal Era." -- Lizabeth Cohen, author of Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939 "Bridgeport was one of those American cities governed for many years by a Socialist mayor. In this meticulous study, Cecelia Bucki explains how that happened and what it reveals about New Deal politics. Her achievement is to extract from the relatively singular--Socialist regimes were not, after all, an American commonplace--broadly applicable insights into the embedded, little-understood structures of grassroots mobilization. Bucki's is a book to reckon with. Her findings are going to make life uncomfortable for historians bent on easy generalization about how ethnicity, class interest, and economic crisis intersected to bring forth the New Deal." -- David Brody, author of Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era

From the Inside Flap

"In this impressive new study of Bridgeport, Connecticut, from World War I through the Great Depression, Cecelia Bucki directs our attention to where we haven't looked before, or at least not for a long time: to politics at the local rather than the national level, to members of the AFL rather than the CIO, and to the Socialist Party rather than the New Deal Democrats. Under her skillful guidance, the exceptional case of Socialist Bridgeport sheds new light on the entire New Deal Era." -- Lizabeth Cohen, author of Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939

"Bridgeport was one of those American cities governed for many years by a Socialist mayor. In this meticulous study, Cecelia Bucki explains how that happened and what it reveals about New Deal politics. Her achievement is to extract from the relatively singular--Socialist regimes were not, after all, an American commonplace--broadly applicable insights into the embedded, little-understood structures of grassroots mobilization. Bucki's is a book to reckon with. Her findings are going to make life uncomfortable for historians bent on easy generalization about how ethnicity, class interest, and economic crisis intersected to bring forth the New Deal." -- David Brody, author of Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (October 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 025202687X
• ISBN-13: 978-0252026874
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,111,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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