Review of American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs (2018) by Beecee — 12 May 2018

This film, which covers a little known era of American history, is definitely worth seeing. Although the format of the documentary is fairly conventional, and few filmed narratives of the people involved are available, it lets us know about the progressive political history of places like Indiana (where Debs was born and raised), West Virginia and Oklahoma.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were also times of turmoil. It also gives us a far different view of people like Helen Keller and Warren Harding. The political cartoons are amusing, and Yale Strom (a great Klezmer musician and ethnomusicologist) has written a good score that reflects America's heartland.

Yale even got the rights to use Woody Guthrie's version of "This Land Is Your Land".