Lincoln Steffens

In 2008, I wrote a book called "Liberal Fascism." That title came from H.G. Wells, one of the most important socialist writers in the English language. He believed, as did his fellow Fabian socialists, that Western democratic capitalism had outlived its...

Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned John A. Farrell Doubleday: 400 pp., $32.50 For five stormy, pivotal decades, Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) was a towering figure in U.S. jurisprudence and politics. He served as defense lawyer for the people...

Editor's Note: Numerous instances of plagiarism have been discovered in Dan Kimber’s “Education Matters” column, which ran in the News- Press from September 2003 to September 2011. In those columns where plagiarism has been found, a...

Robert Scheer is a journalist in the gadfly tradition of Lincoln Steffens, I. F. Stone and Seymour Hersh. His latest book, "The Great American Stickup," blames the "captains of finance" for causing the 2008 "meltdown" of the global economy in the first...

If you're like me, you probably watch Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." If you're like me, you probably also turn to reruns of "Scrubs" or "Seinfeld" when the newsmaker interview comes on. If that's the case, you probably missed me and Jon Stewart...

California, the media like to tell us, faces an unprecedented fiscal crisis. The budget deficit is $40 billion and growing. The state is so short of cash that, within days, it may issue IOUs, rather than checks, to pay its bills. The Legislature, bitterly...

Democracy's Prisoner Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent Ernest Freeberg Harvard University Press: 380 pp., $29.95 It all sounds so familiar: a foreign war, an unpopular president, high-minded vows to spread democracy abroad and...

Dynamite The Story of Class Violence in America Louis Adamic Foreword by Jon Bekken AK Press: 352 pp., $19.95 paper Louis Adamic is the forgotten Boswell of early Los Angeles, perhaps the first writer to tune himself into the then-youthful city...

Mary Austin and the American West Susan Goodman and Carl Dawson University of California Press: 324 pp., $29.95 Few writers of her period overcame more obstacles than Mary Austin. Stuck in a disappointing marriage, Austin (1868-1934) spent the...

It all sounds so familiar: a foreign war, an unpopular president, high-minded vows to spread democracy abroad and a dubious law to restrict liberties at home. Add to that scenario vast inequalities in wealth, high Immigration rates, scant regard for...

By Eric Arnesen By the dawn of the 20th Century, a recently retired John D. Rockefeller was one of the nation's richest and most powerful businessmen, having presided over the rise of corporate giant Standard Oil Co. At the same moment, Ida Tarbell...