"While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." This was the credo of Eugene V. Debs, union organizer, political crusader, unrelenting fighter for individual freedom, human dignity and social progress.

Intelligent, hard working and well liked, young Debs could easily have climbed the ladder of success in late nineteenth century America. But from his father he had absorbed a fervent idealism, and his early experiences as a railway worker had shown him the evils of an economic system in which honest laborers were helpless pawns in the hands of giant business interests. For Debs, his talents were not his to be used for his own benefit, but for the benefit of those in desperate need—a need he saw everywhere around him.

Thus it was that this strong, upright, gentle man came to organize the first true railroad union and lead it in a strike against the enormous power of the Great Northern railway. From that moment, Debs became a commanding figure in the national consciousness. For his activities he was jailed, and his work seemingly destroyed, but a brilliant defense by lawyer Clarence Darrow secured his release. Against overwhelming odds he sought to advance the cause of labor, women's rights, and racial equality, while finding in Socialism his answer to the grave social ills of the day. During World War I, he voluntarily sought imprisonment in defense of the right of free speech and dissent. His finest hour came when he received almost a million votes for President of the United States while still in  prison.

A gripping, deeply moving drama, the story of Eugene V. Debs is one of compelling human greatness, a story rich in inspiration for today's youth and for as long as courage and compassion stir in the hearts of men.

From the dust jacket