Movements for economic reform / by Philip Taft.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 559-579) and indices.

1. Introduction -- 2. The first utopians -- 3. Socialist ideas in the eighteenth century -- 4. Socialism in the nineteenth century -- 5. Marxism -- 6. Marxism economic doctrines -- 7. Anarchism -- 8. German social democracy -- 9. Social democracy after World War I -- 10. Austro-Marxism -- 11. French socialism and syndicalism -- 12. French radicalism after World War I -- 13. Early socialism in England -- 14. The English labor parties -- 15. English labor in power -- 16. The Swedish middle way -- 17. American radicalism -- 18. The New Deal -- 19. The early Russian revolutionary movement -- 20. Russian Marxism -- 21. The Russian revolutions -- 22. The Soviet economy -- 23. Government and party in the Soviet Union -- 24. Italian socialism and fascism -- 25. Christian socialism -- 26. Reactionary socialism -- 27. German reactionary socialism -- 28. The first and second internationals -- 29. Internationalism after 1914 -- 30. Labor internationalism -- 31. Economic planning -- 32. Cooperation

"A college textbook which attempts to view in historical perspective the ideas selected for discussion, beginning with Plato's Republic, and to trace their embodiment in economic and political institutions and movements. Most of the volume deals with the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with emphasis on the role of labor. The author views idealism with sympathy but concludes that "democracy and reasonable progress" require avoidance alike of "doctrinaire revolution" and "doctrinaire reaction." He recommends to his students a recognition of the fact that "man can never give the final answer to the problem of the universe or of society," and that orderly progress calls for "patience, tolerance, healthy skepticism, and experimental attitude, and the willingness to analyze carefully." -- From Monthly Labor Review,

Donation from Karl and Elizabeth Niebyl.