In this provocative biographical portrait, Robert A. Gorman examines the political and intellectual life of this engaging radical thinker while looking ahead to the ways in which the work and example he has left us can affect political life in the twenty-first century.

Michael Harrington's major attempt to Americanize socialism plays a big part in Gorman's analysis. He tells readers how it is possible to be both radical and patriotic and how an unjust system can be transformed without being destroyed.