The German-American Radical Press The Shaping of a Left Political Culture, 1850-1940

Chicago's German-language socialist weekly, Der Vorbote, claimed in 1880 that "the history of the workers' movement in the United States is at the same time the history of the workers' press." Hyperbolic perhaps, but to judge by the energy and resources German-American radicals devoted to their press, many immigrants agreed. The radical movement in the United States met with problems as well as support. Language and culture frequently divided the radicals, and class considerations splintered the German-American community. Cultural radicals like Robert Reitzel and Ludwig Lore ran afoul of rank-and-file taste or party discipline; attempts by the New Yorker Volkszeitung to coach women on proper socialist positions resulted in bitter arguments over the importance of woman suffrage and pacifism