The Long Distance Runner by Michael Harrington

A candid political memoir that follows one activist's journey from a working-class childhood to a lifelong engagement with democratic socialism, combining personal anecdotes, intellectual reflection, and on-the-ground reportage. It recounts formative experiences that shaped his beliefs, his role in organizing and critiquing the American left, and encounters with poverty and the civil-rights movement that reinforced his commitment to social reform. Throughout, he balances critique of both capitalist inequality and authoritarian communism while arguing for practical, democratic strategies to expand social justice in American life.