ABSTRACT
The generation to which the first American Communists belonged was tormented by intense doubt and anxiety about the state of American capitalism. The troubled conscience of this generation was fed far more by Populism and Progressivism than by socialism and syndicalism. All of them combined to create a general mood of discontent in the middle class as well as in the working class. The formative years of three typical native Communist leaders—William Z. Foster (born in 1881), Charles E. Ruthenberg (born in 1882), and Earl Browder (born in 1891)—were spent in an America deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. The high tide of Progressivism was also the high tide of Socialism. The dualism of American radical politics haunted the Socialist movement as soon as it tasted conventional success. From the outside, its future never looked brighter. Inside, a crisis festered.
