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Alex Riggs

Alex Riggs is a third-year PhD student in History at the University of Nottingham, funded by Midlands4Cities. He researches the 1970s and 1980s American left, using case studies from local and national politics to trace their intellectual history and organisational efforts. He also co-founded the Contemporary History and Politics Seminars at Nottingham. You can follow him on Twitter @AlexRiggs6

Book Review: American Democratic Socialism: History, Politics, Religion, and Theory by Gary Dorrien

Over recent years, American democratic socialism has experienced a remarkable revival. This includes Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s electoral success, but also the transformation of institutions like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) from a 6,000-member organisation with an average age of 68 in the mid-2010s to a 94,915-strong group with an average age of 33 by 2021. But as Gary Dorrien uncovers in American Democratic Socialism: History, Politics, Religion and Theory, this politics has a history that stretches back long before today.