Norman Wallace Lermond and His Quest for the Cooperative Commonwealth

Abstract

Norman Wallace Lermond was Maine's premier socialist leader from 1900, when he first appeared on the state party ticket, until his death in 1944. As such, he represents both the persistence and the frustration of radical politics in a state renowned for its individualism and political conservatism. Lermond's career entailed a series of compromises and contradictions as the socialist leader navigated the shoals of reform and revolution—endorsing political action but eschewing its practical “step-at-a-time" agenda. Through all this, Lermond remained committed to his utopian vision of a classless and harmonious society, in which the failings of capitalism would be swept away and a new society built on foundations inspired by novelist Edward Bellamy's imagined cooperative commonwealth. Charles A. Scontras is a retired professor from the University of Maine and has written widely on Maine's labor, reform, and socialist history. Among his many works is The Socialist Alternative: Utopian Experiments and The Socialist Party Of Maine, 1895-1914, published in 1985.