Guest Essayist: Daniel A. Cotter
The Election of 1920: The Sedition Act, Eugene Debs, and the “Red Scare”
Eugene V. Debs was a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a frequent Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Debs became a well-known socialist both through his political activity and as a result of the government’s criminal prosecution of his activities. Other essays in this series cover the numerous Presidential elections in which Debs ran, as well as the other candidates in the 1920 Presidential election. This essay focuses on the Sedition Act of 1918, Debs, and the “Red Scare.”