American Socialist

Ryan C. McIlhenny’s American Socialist is the first comprehensive biography of Laurence Gronlund (1844–1899), one of the nation’s most persuasive proponents of socialism. Gronlund cultivated a unique polemic against capitalism by advocating positions that synthesized Marxism with Darwinian evolution, rejected class violence, and emphasized cooperation over competition. According to McIlhenny, a belief in a divine force advancing history toward a “cooperative commonwealth” underpinned his philoso