The Intercollegiate Socialist Society—prototype of the modern American student movement and the ancestor of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)—was the first nationally organized student group that had a distinct political and ideological orientation. Its social and economic concerns, among them the labor and women’s suffrage movements, encompassed most of the issues agitating a rapidly changing society during the first two decades of this century. The ISS started a tradition of student political awareness and protest that has persisted to our day. For more than 15 years, it provided a forum for a group of gifted young men and women who, then and later, exercised influence far out of proportion to their numbers. This first full-scale study of the ISS follows the society from its birth in 1905 to its decline during World War I and the postwar period. Relying largely on original sources, Horn examines the structure, ideology, program, and tactics of the ISS and assesses its impact on students, faculty, and college administrators.

"Student activism" is a commonly used-and somewhat loaded-phrase. In the mind of the modern observer, the phrase inspires images of peace signs, love beads, sit-ins, and Kent State. Student activism, however, has not always been true to this imagery. The tradition of student groups devoted to political, ideological ends extends back to the early years of the twentieth century. The group that established this tradition also forms the subject of this study: the Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS). The ISS was founded in 1905. It led no rallies or sit-ins; nor were any of its members martyred at the hands of the national guard. Its tactics were peaceful- in fact, they can hardly be called "tactics." Far from occupying college presidents' offices, the ISS sponsored lectures, organized study groups, and published reading lists. However, the group must not be dismissed as trivial simply because it does not tap the romantic aura of "The Sixties." The ISS began a twentieth-century practice of student awareness of and concern for the political world outside the walls of the "ivory tower" that is still very much alive- the rhetoric of cynics and disappointed radicals notwithstanding.