Critics and Crusaders: Political Economy and the American Quest for Freedom

The quest for freedom has always been a defining characteristic of the American people. That neither constitutionalism nor capitalism has secured complete freedom for every person is demonstrated by media announcements of slavery, oppression, exploitation, and a variety of shortcomings in the economic system. That said, and as this volume seeks to demonstrate through a history of radical commentaries, there have always been bold spirits who fight for such ambitious heights. With changing times, freedom meant different things to those who worked for it. This book in its broadest sense is a history of libertarianism. Each of the libertarians in this full study, extending from William Lloyd Garrison to Eugene V. Debs, fought for the ideal of political economy as a practical ideal. In so doing these major figures at the margins of power expanded the entire field of human rights. Charles A. Madison concludes that radicalism became an ideology in the search for freedom. The zeal and activity of these figures did much to attain the political freedom and economic well- being that Americans are inclined to take for granted. These individual chapters are set in frames supplied by background sketches of the movements each group led, and the whole is an attempt to depict and re-evaluate America's social progress without the rigor or formality of impersonalised history.

Table of Contents:
The Abolitionist; The Abolitionist Background; William Lloyd Garrison; John Brown; Wendell Phillips; The Utopians; The Utopian Background; Margaret Fuller; Albert Brisbane; Edward Bellamy; The Anarchists; The Anarchist Background; Henry David Thoreau; Benjamin R. Tucker; Emma Goldman; The Dissident Economists; The Economic Background; Henry George; Brooks Adams; Thorstein Veblen; The Militant Liberals; The Liberal Background; John Peter Altgeld; Lincoln Steffens; Randolph Bourne; The Socialists; The Socialist Background; Daniel De Leon; Eugene Victor Debs; John Reed; A Final Note

About the Author :
Charles A. Madison (1895-1985) was the son of a factory worker in Detroit, Michigan. He worked his way through the University of Michigan, and then did graduate studies at Harvard University. His interests shifted from academic work to editorial work in New York. While in New York he started out at the American Book Company, and later on went to Henry Holt where he remained for thirty-eight years. Critics and Crusaders was a work six years in the making, from 1941 to 1947. His other works include Irving to Irving: Author-Publisher Relations,Eminent American Jews , and Publishing in America: The Impact of Jewish Writing on American Culture .

Review :
 "Mr. Madison writes earnestly and clearly... of his eighteen heroes and heroines. [H]e has immersed himself in their writings and has gone to the right monographs and biographies for his background material... [A] useful and timely collection of popular sketches, emphasizing an important strand in our national culture." --Frederick B. Tolles, American Literature "[Mr. Madison] writes with enthusiasm and at times with eloquence about a representative collection of American radicals all of whom, despite great diversity, obviously excite his admiration and sympathy." --Paul M. Sweezy, The American Economic Review "[A]long with the ably done portraits and the many heartening examples of self-sacrificing courage, the feeling this book gives of the immediacy and urgency of the long fight to preserve human freedom furnishes ample justification for Mr. Madison's method." --Townsend Scudder, The American Historical Review "Every one of the eighteen portraits is a brief but well-rounded study." --Albert Guerard, The Nation "This volume is an excellent effort to provide briefly but accurately both the highlights and the atmosphere of the careers of 18 American luminaries in the area of independent thought and progressive action." --Robert S. Browne, Phylon