Harrington, Michael

Michael Harrington was born on February 24, 1928, to Edward Michael Harrington and Catherine Fitzgibbon in St. Louis, Missouri. His undergraduate education was completed at Holy Cross College in 1947. After attending Yale Law School for a year, he went to the University of Chicago, where he earned a master’s degree in English literature in 1949. While living in New York City in 1951, he took a job working with Dorothy Day’s Catholic Workers movement. During that time, he was exposed to radical philosophies that led him to embrace Marxism in 1952. That year, he wrote an essay titled “Poverty-USA” that foreshadowed his later work. Upon embracing Marxism, Harrington joined the Young Socialist League, where he became a prominent speaker and leader. He then moved ...