Rise of Socialism: History Suggests Some Leftists Will Come Around to Conservatism

‘Socialism is coming,” J. A. Wayland, the publisher of Appeal to Reason, promised in 1902. “It’s coming like a prairie fire and nothing can stop it.”

A decade later, the founder of the most successful periodical in the history of the American left looked more prophet than crackpot. Socialists, particularly Wayland, imagined 1912 as the year of American deliverance from capitalism to socialism.

About the Author

Daniel J. Flynn

Daniel J. Flynn, the author of The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer, is an American Spectator senior editor, visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, and YouTuber @RightWingWilderness.

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Democratic Socialists of America

‘Socialism is coming,” J. A. Wayland, the publisher of Appeal to Reason, promised in 1902. “It’s coming like a prairie fire and nothing can stop it.”

A decade later, the founder of the most successful periodical in the history of the American left looked more prophet than crackpot. Socialists, particularly Wayland, imagined 1912 as the year of American deliverance from capitalism to socialism.