Optimism without limit:: intellectual life in the American Socialist movement, 1895-1912

This thesis investigates networks of informal education, activism, and intellectual participation within the American Socialist movement during its heyday between 1895-1912. This study examines the writings of three American socialists, Samuel Joseph, William Mailly, and Rufus Trimble, to show how they experienced the American socialist project as an intellectual movement, one which appealed to its audience through a modernizing discourse of historical teleology, scientific empiricism, and self-education. This study shows how these activists participated in and helped produce a growing, popular American culture of education and intellectualism.