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7/19/2024 Review: Bill Buell – George Lunn: The 1912 Socialist Victory in Schenectady (2019)By J.N. CheneyRead Now With the surge in popularity of the Democratic Socialists of America since Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, it can be argued that there’s likewise been a surge in the successes of municipal socialism. Granted this is only concerning the electoral prospects of a single organization, but at least according to Wikipedia, there are nearly 150 people holding various positions within municipal governments ranging from the Mayoral office to smaller positions such as being members of a school board between 31 different states in the US. To understand the potential of these electoral results, or even the lack-there-of, historical examples need to be studied to absorb the lessons of these experiments. Could Bill Buell’s work “George Lunn: The 1912 Socialist Victory in Schenectady” serve as a lens into the achievements and shortcomings of socialism at the local level? Published in 2019, the county historian of Schenectady’s book holds the dual purpose of being a biography of George R. Lunn, a minister and politician, as well as more specifically examining his time as the only ever socialist mayor of Schenectady, New York. Lunn is also one of only four people to hold a mayoral office in New York State under some form of the socialist banner, as well as being the first to do so. The first seven chapters of this book touch upon Lunn’s early life and connections to the pulpit, as well as giving some historical context to the city of Schenectady and the standing of socialism within the United States in the early 20th century. To put it briefly, Lunn was born in Iowa in 1873, served very briefly as a chaplain during the Spanish-American War, and would later become ordained as a Presbyterian minister after graduating from Union Theological Seminary in 1901. In 1904 Lunn would move to Schenectady when he was named as pastor for Schenectady’s First Reformed Church. It was as a minister that Lunn began to gain prominence, being cited as an engaging and charismatic speaker, using his platform in the church to talk not only about religious affairs, but to address corruption within the city and speak of societal ills such as homelessness and child labor. The minister’s rhetoric would result in him leaving First Reformed in 1910, leading him to form his own congregation through the People’s Church and, soon after, officially joining the Socialist Party of America near the end of that year. Chronicling George Lunn’s entrance to the SPA introduces the real meat and potatoes of this biographical piece, his political career. Buell chronicles Lunn’s quick rise to popularity and his election to Mayor of Schenectady on the socialist ticket, taking office in 1911. The efforts of Lunn and his associates to implement elements of socialism within the framework of capitalism such as introducing free garbage pickup and a protracted effort to improve the city’s parks are laid out, examining how Lunn introduced these as well as displaying the struggles that came with working to implement such programs. Lunn’s administration faced issues with Republicans, Democrats, and the Progressive party trying to block him from following through with such economic and social programs, as well as issues within the Socialist Party itself. Particularly, there were individuals and factions who considered Lunn to be not “socialist enough” in his practices. Famed writer Walter Lippmann for a short time served as part of Lunn’s cabinet, and his reason for leaving stems from that very critique. With Lunn’s politics being influenced more by the Social Gospel and reformism than any sort of scientific socialism, these specific critiques do hold water. Buell does provide an astute recounting of Lunn’s involvement in the Little Falls Textile Strike of 1912-1913, with the Mayor serving as one of the primary catalysts in giving that struggle national attention, and bringing significant figures in labor history to New York’s Mohawk Valley as well as Schenectady, including Bill Haywood, Matilda Rabinowitz, Helen Schloss, Joseph Ettor, and more. Explaining how Lunn balanced his commitments as Mayor, his involvement in the strike, and his potential bid to run for Congress shows just how multifaceted Lunn was in his ability to juggle responsibilities. In that same vein, Buell covers Lunn’s struggles within and eventual leaving of the SPA after his second term as Mayor as well as his later career in a concise manner, though one could argue that it was too concise since he only spent three chapters including an epilogue covering Lunn’s career after this leaving the SPA. Given that this book is more specifically about Lunn’s first term as Mayor of Schenectady with some emphasis on his second, this is understandable. That being said, it would’ve been interesting and beneficial to see some more emphasis on Lunn’s third term as mayor and other political actions after leaving socialism. Bill Buell’s book is informative and is generally well-written and digestible. Buell doesn’t dive very deeply into the major theoretical conflicts between Lunn and other members of the party. Besides a brief mention of Lincoln Steffen’s dissolution with the Soviet Union, there is no explicit political bias being pushed by this book, no upholding of the socialist boogeyman that so many would use a piece like this to demonize. However, there are some shortcomings. The first being that since this book is self-published, even with the aid of the Troy Book Makers, a handful of typos managed to slip through the cracks. Though unfortunate to see, these can be forgiven as such typos are few and far between throughout the entire 200+ page book. The biggest problem to be found though is the use of one particular source. Buell utilizes the book The Red Nurse: A Story of the Little Falls Textile Strike by Michael Cooney as a source when introducing Helen Schloss and her role in the strike. For one, this is a piece of historical fiction. There are true elements to the book’s story, but to use a dramatization of historical events as an academic source shouldn’t be acceptable. Additionally, according to others who have studied the strike and the life of Schloss such as playwright Angela Harris, there are various inaccuracies in The Red Nurse. One example being that in the novel, Cooney says that Schloss resigned from a position she held in Little Falls in a rather vitriolic manner, when all actual accounts show that she resigned in a cordial manner. The story of George R. Lunn’s life and political career is not an unknown one given that there are a handful of academic articles and book chapters about the man and his career, as well as even having his own dedicated Wikipedia page. With that knowledge though, Buell’s piece serves as one of the only books dedicated to the life and times of the minister, the only other one that comes to mind being George Gardner’s The Schenectadians published in 2001. It’s not a perfect book given the aforementioned shortcomings, but George Lunn: The 1912 Socialist Victory in Schenectady is worth reading and analyzing for a look at the popularity of socialism at the time in addition to the benefits and shortcomings of municipal socialism. AuthorJ.N. Cheney is an aspiring Marxist historian with a BA in history from Utica College. His research primarily focuses on New York State labor history, as well as general US socialist history. He additionally studies facets of the past and present global socialist movement including the Soviet Union, the DPRK, and Cuba. Archives July 2024
1 Comment
effa
8/2/2024 06:53:14 pm
<b>pretty damn good article</b> Leave a Reply. |
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