A first edition of one of the most influential texts in early modern US socialism, Gronlund’s 1884 ‘Cooperative Commonwealth’. The book, selling over 100,000 copies, would have a lasting impact on the thinking and work of leaders such as Edward Bellamy, Eugene Debs, and Julius Wayland, among countless others. Written while Gronlund was a leading member of the SLP, he attempts to explain some of Marx’s ideas to an American audience. Laurence Gronlund (1846-1899) was a Danish-born US socialist who joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1878 shortly after its founding. A writer, historian and translator, Gronlund was a leading member of the SLP in the 1880s, writing many of the Party’s most important texts, but broke with them in 1890, ostensibly over their position on alcohol. Some of his writings were extremely influential on later thinkers like Edward Bellamy and Julius Wayland. Gronlund increasingly embraced Fabianism and a Christian Socialism in his later years.

The Cooperative Commonwealth In Its Outlines: An Exposition Of Modern Socialism by Laurence Gronlund. Lee and Shepard Publishers, Boston. 1884.

Contents: To the Reader, The Profit System, Social Anarchy, The Culmination, The Sphere of the State, Expediency of the Cooperative Commonwealth, Social Economy, Democracy vs. Party Government, Administration of Affairs, Administration of Justice, Woman, Education, Morals, The Coming Revolution.

PDF of original book: https://archive.org/download/coperativecommon00gron/coperativecommon00gron.pdf