Looking in and Breaking Out: How a Political Outsider Utilized and Adapted Traditional Political Thought

This thesis seeks to explore the question of how a political leader from outside the American tradition of political thought, in this case Eugene Victor Debs, adapts, incorporates, and resists that tradition for his political objectives. There is a rich, and very detailed, tapestry which makes up both American political theory and its history. This thesis seeks to explore the ways in which Debs may be more a part of this tapestry than generally thought, and therefore possibly expand the way that politics is conceived of in the United States.