Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Socialism as an organized political movement in the United States began with utopian communities in the early 19th century and later became closely tied to the Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Party of America. Influenced by revolutionary European thinking and gaining momentum from distraught workers and oppressed peoples, the Socialist Party managed to successfully run hundreds of candidates for various positions around the nation for several decades. However, it faced severe government repression and eventually broke apart and declined in the 1920s. The Socialist Labor Party never attracted the numbers the Socialist Party did in the early decades of the 20th century, but the SLP continues to exist today.