William Zebulon Foster (1881-1961), a leading figure in the Communist Party of the United States for 4 decades, was the patriarch of American communism.

Born in Taunton, Mass., the son of a poor railroad worker, William Foster grew up in a Philadelphia slum. He started working at the age of 7; at 17 he was a migrant laborer. For 20 years he traveled America and much of the world, working at a variety of frequently brutal jobs. These experiences made him a thoroughgoing radical. Expelled from the Socialist party because of his extreme views, in 1909 Foster joined the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World, working as a pamphleteer and agitator. He also formed short-lived syndicalist and workers educational leagues and helped organize packing house workers during World War I.

Foster gained national prominence as the leading organizer in the steel strike of 1919, which crippled much of America's economy for months and further...