Why socialism has failed to play a significant role in the United States ”the most developed capitalist industrial society and hence, ostensibly, fertile ground for socialism ”has been a critical question of American history and political development. Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks "survey with subtlety and shrewd judgment the various explanations" ( Wall Street Journal ) for this phenomenon of American political exceptionalism. "Clearly written, intelligent, filled with new information" ( Times Literary Supplement ), this "splendidly convincing" (Michael Kazin, Georgetown University) work eschews conventional arguments about socialism's demise to present a fuller understanding of how multiple factors ”political structure, American values, immigration, and the split between the Socialist party and mainstream unions ”combined to seal socialism's fate. "In peak form, two master political sociologists offer a must-read synthesis." ”Theda Skocpol, Harvard University.