Debs and the Politics of Dissent

Conference in Terre Haute, IN

Eugene V. Debs and the Politics of Dissent in Modern America
10-11 November 2000
Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN

Indiana State University and the Eugene V. Debs Foundation invite the academics interested in socialism and American electoral politics to attend a conference in Terre Haute, Indiana on the campus of Indiana State University. The program is listed below. For more information please email me.
From: Rich Schneirov, Dept of History Indiana State University, Hischnei@ruby.indstate.edu

Friday, November 10

  • 10:00-12:00am: I. New Perspectives on the Socialist Party
    Chair: Jacob H. Dorn (Wright State University)
    Presenters:
    • Stephen Burwood (Southwestern Oklahoma State University): Debsian Socialism in Transnational Context
    • Sally M. Miller (University of the Pacific): For White Men Only? The Party of Eugene V. Debs
    • Todd Anthony Rosa (George Washington University): 'No Country to Fight For': The Socialist Party of America, the Neutrality Acts, and the Tradition of Eugene V. Debs
    • Comment: James Barrett (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
  • 12:00-2:00pm: Lunch
  • 2:00-4:00pm: II. Dissenting Third Parties and the American Electoral System
    Chair: Julie Walsh (St. Joseph College)
    Presenters:
    • Peter Argersinger (Southern Illinois University): Taubneck's Laws: Third Parties in American Politics in the Late Nineteenth Century
    • Gerald Friedman (University of Massachusetts): Success and Failure in Third Party Politics The Knights of Labor and the Union Labor Coalition in Massachusetts, 1884-88
    • Mark Lause (University of Cincinnati): James B. Weaver's 1880 Greenback-Labor Campaign: the Post-Civil War Roots of the American Socialist Legacy
    • Commenters: Julie Walsh (St Joseph's College)
  • Tour of the Debs House following Final Session
  • 7:00-9:00pm: Dinner
    After Dinner Speaker: Jim Barrett (University of Illinois, Urbana) - Bringing the Personal into the Political: the Case of William Z. Foster and the Communist Personal Narrative

Saturday, November 11

  • 9:00-10:30am: III. Christian Socialism in the Era of Debs
    Chair: Bob Clouse (Indiana State University)
    Presenters:
    • Jacob H. Dorn (Wright State University): Eugene V. Debs and the Socialist Christians
    • Kyle Wilkison (Collin County Community College): The Religious Left in the Lone Star State: Christian Dissenters in Early Twentieth Century Texas
    • Comment: Bob Clouse (ISU), Don Richards (ISU)
  • 10:45-12:15pm: IV. The Socialist Politics of Eugene Debs
    Chair: Sally Miller (University of the Pacific)
    Presenters:
    • Jason Martinek (Carnegie Mellon University): Reading and (R)evolution: Educational Politics and Debs's Social Democracy of America, 1897-1898
    • Bill Pelz (Institute of Working Class History): Eugene Debs and the Primacy of Class
    • Comment: David Sterling (University of Cincinnati)
  • 12:30-1:45pm: Lunch
  • 2:00-3:30pm: V. Symposium: Maurice Isserman's new book: The Other American: The Untold Life of Michael Harrington (Public Affairs Press, 2000)
    Chair:
    Discussants: Paul Burkett (Indiana State University), Jim Livingston (Rutgers University)
    Response: Maurice Isserman (Hamilton College)
  • 3:30-4:45pm: VI. Evolutionary Socialism in the Progressive Era
    Chair: Louis Ferleger (Boston University)
    Presenters:
    • Martin J. Sklar (Bucknell University): Capitalism and Socialism: Utopian and Realistic
    • Jim Livingston (Rutgers University): John Dewey Was Right About World War I
    • Richard Schneirov (Indiana State University): Revisionist Socialism as Interpreted by William English Walling
    • Comment: The Audience
  • 7:00pm: DEBS Award Banquet

Registration fee: with Friday dinner: $25; without dinner: $10

Accommodations are about a ten minute drive from the ISU campus: Days Inn (235-3333-this hotel, nearest to ISU's campus, has quoted us a conference rate of $49 per night); Holiday Inn (812-232-6081); Knights Inn (1-800-843-5644); Pear Tree Inn (812-234-42 ); Signature Inn (812-238-1461)

For registration and inquiries:

Eugene V. Debs Foundation
P.O. Box 846
Terre Haute, IN 47808

Posted: 18 September 2000