Throughout American history, many radical movements have forever changed the historical landscape of the United States of America. Since the beginning of American history, radical movements have played an important role in bringing about change in American society and in the United States' relations with other countries. They also experienced great failures and defeats. Since the end of the First World War there have been important concrete successes and failures of radical movements in changing the mainstream of society. Radical movements such as labor/socialism, women's rights, civil rights, and peace have played a significant role in the development of U.S. politics and society and have forever changed the past, present, and future of the United States of America. America. The labor/socialist movement, supported primarily by the lower classes, was a prominent radical idea that emerged in American society around the conclusion of World War I. “The very fact that the Soviet Union, the revolutionary successor to imperial Russia, was the first country to establish a communist political and economic state constituted a grave threat to the United States” (Brown 4). Influenced by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the socialist movement gained momentum from oppressed workers and was thus able to successfully carry hundreds of candidates across the nation for several decades. “The socialist movement was painstakingly organized by dozens of ex-populists, militant miners, and blacklisted railway workers, assisted by a notable cadre of professional agitators and educators” (Zinn 340). Socialism became extremely popular largely due to its advocacy by writers such as Mark Twain, W. E. B. Dubois, and Upton Sinclair, and its representation by Eugene Debs. With... half the paper... the Great Society and Obama's healthcare reform were born. Without the socialism/labor movement the civil rights, women's rights and peace movements and their lasting impact on society would never have happened. Works Cited Bloom, Alexander and Wini Breines. "Taking it to the Street": A Reader of the Sixties. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. Print.Brown, Archie. Rise and fall of communism. New York: Ecco, 2009. Print. Burkett, Elinor. "Women's Movement". Online Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. Network. December 15, 2010. .Guttmann, Allen. "Protest against the war in Vietnam." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 382.1 (1969): 56-63. Print.Zinn, Howard. A popular history of the United States: 1492–present. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.