I'm amazed by how socialist EPIC's proposals were. I mean, I know that's how they were described in, say, the Journal, but honestly, I figured "socialist" in this sense meant more like "Canadian". The reality was closer to "Communist". It's remarkable that Heinlein espoused that view and then transitioned to the other end of the scale. I just had no idea how long that scale was.

I also thought I had a good idea of what went on in the Depression. Reading more about it, I see I was underinformed. The country came perilously close to revolution, for instance. I also didn't know that the riots were as widespread, large, and violent. It's not going to get that bad now, but comparatively speaking, it might feel like it in a few years.

Not just in the US. England, too, had a strong C/c/ommunist leaning in the 1920s and 30s - which is what led to the various spy rings two decades later.

And all of it contributed to the McCarthy hysteria, since so many people really did attend a few pink gatherings or even carry a pinkish-red card of some sort... for a time.

But yes, Sinclair and EPIC and the other big movements of the time were REALLY Socialist, very extreme by today's gentle notions of Canadian and Scandanavian "socialism."

(And light-years from what right-wing hysterics call socialist here and now. Those would be the righties who want government to pay for important things, like those that affect them, their companies and their investments... but not that commie-socialist welfare crap for everyone else.)