In Part I, this booklet traces the post-Independence struggles in the United States for the realization of the ideals of the early Enlightenment thinkers, with particular emphasis on the practical struggles of the working class. The mid nineteenth to the mid twentieth centuries origin and fates of the theories of Charles Darwin and Karl Marx in this country, are seen through the ideological lenses of the various classes, groups, and individual. We get glimpses of the pracgtical objectives of the culturally influential religious revivals, social Darwinist movement, and the current "dunbing down" of the US population - al of which had (and have ) the support and/or blessings of the corporate and political elite, down through the decades. In Part II, the author presents a reappraisal, mainly by academic Marxists in the advanced capitalist ststes,of the demise of soviet socialism, and their alternatives for a non- market socialism with transparency - Democratic Participatory Socialism. It is the hope of this writer that the ideas within will seed more discussion on socialsit theory and practice.