Shawn Gude with Kim Phillips-Fein

Shawn Gude presents American Socialist: The Life and Legacy of Eugene V. Debs

In conversation with Kim Phillips-Fein

Local author and former editor at Jacobin Shawn Gude presents American Socialist, a stunning portrait of one man’s radicalization—and of the country he radicalized in turn. Before Bernie Sanders, before Zohran Mamdani, America’s favorite socialist was Eugene Deb—part working-class agitator, part radical prophet, a man who made it feel like being an American and a socialist was the most natural thing in the world. Rousing, poignant, and intimately human, American Socialist is a story that speaks powerfully to our own Gilded Age—when the very wealthy again rule America’s political and economic life and millions are looking for an alternative. Gude reads from and discusses the book with historian and Columbia University professor Kim Phillips-Fein before an audience Q&A and signing.