The Other American: The Life Of Michael Harrington

I looked for a biography of Harrington after joining the Democratic Socialists of America. The DSA is an unusual party on the socialist left since it balances its proud socialist tendencies with its anti-Communism, its political realism (it doesn't put forward its own candidates but works within the progressive wing of the Democratic party) and its strong partnership with the far stronger European socialist parties (the DSA is the US sister party in the Socialist International).

This book is very helpful in understanding how a party like the DSA came about. It traces the life of Harrington through the complicated history of socialist and Catholic progressive movements he was involved in through the mid-century and the conflicts of the 60s-80s between anti-Stalinist socialist parties and their new challengers among a New Left enamored with national liberation movements, whatever their totalitarian tendencies might be.

Isserman has a strong leftist background but doesn't pull any punches. His bio of Harrington contains plenty of material on Harrington's failures, the pathetic sectarian conflicts that destroyed so many of the movements he was a part of, and the failures of both the radicals and conservatives within the socialist and Democratic left of the United States.

The book is well written and researched but ends rather suddenly with Harrington's death, not taking the opportunity to reflect on his legacy or the developments of the DSA he founded in the years afterwards.