author
Boris Reinstein
A Russian-born revolutionary, pharmacist, and labor writer, he linked American socialism to the wider international movement. His surviving work has the urgency of a speaker trying to turn political ideas into action.
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About the author
Born in 1866 in the Russian Empire, Boris Reinstein became politically active while still young and later studied chemistry and pharmacology in Switzerland. After emigrating to the United States, he settled in the Buffalo, New York, area, where he was active in socialist organizing and became an important figure in the Socialist Labor Party.
Reinstein is remembered as both an activist and a writer. His best-known book, International May Day and American Labor Day, argues that workers' holidays carry very different political meanings, and it reflects his strong belief that labor movements should aim at broad social change rather than symbolism alone.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he returned to Russia and became involved in the early Communist International. That unusual life path—from immigrant organizer in upstate New York to participant in international revolutionary politics—gives his writing a direct, historical force that still makes it interesting to read today.