"Bryan D. Palmer reinterprets the history of labour and the left in the United States during the 1930s through a discussion of the emergence of Trotskyism in the most advanced capitalist country in the world. Focussing on James P. Cannon, the founder of American Trotskyism, Palmer builds on his...

Introduction / Jack Barnes -- Tribunes of the people / V.I. Lenin -- Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay / Leon Trotsky -- "In Minneapolis we can begin to show the entire country" / Farrell Dobbs, Jack Barnes -- Trade unions : their past, present, and future / Karl Marx.