Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition

In this ambitious work, first published in 1983, Cedric Robinson demonstrates that efforts to understand black people's history of resistance solely through the prism of Marxist theory are incomplete and inaccurate. Marxist analyses tend to presuppose European models of history and experience that downplay the significance of black people and black communities as agents of change and resistance. Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of blacks on western continents, Robinson argues, and any analyses of African American history need to acknowledge this.

To illustrate his argument, Robinson traces the emergence of Marxist ideology in Europe, the resistance by blacks in historically oppressive environments, and the influence of both of these traditions on such important twentieth-century black radical thinkers as W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, and Richard Wright.

I can say, without a trace of hyperbole, that this book changed my life.

Robin D. G. Kelley, from the Foreword Black Marxism provides a well-documented foundation upon which to build ideological and mass social movements.Phylon A towering achievement. There is simply nothing like it in the history of black radical thought.

Cornel West, Monthly Review Reflective and thought-provoking, a welcome contribution to the African/Afro-American studies discipline.

Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism

In this reissue of a 1983 classic, Robinson argues that Western Marxism is unable to comprehend either the racial character of capitalism or mass movements outside of Europe. Robinson combines political theory, history, philosophy, and cultural analysis to illustrate his argument and chronicles the influence of Marxist ideology and black resistance on such important black radical thinkers as W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, and Richard Wright.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [409]-429) and index.

CONTENTS

Foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley

Preface to the 1999 Edition

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I. The Emergence and Limitations of European Radicalism

1. Racial Capitalism: The Nonobjective Character of Capitalist Development

Europe's Formation

The First Bourgeoisie

The Modern World Bourgeoisie

The Lower Orders

The Effects of Western Civilization on Capitalism

2. The English Working Class as the Mirror of Production

Poverty and Industrial Capitalism

The Reaction of English Labor

The Colonization of Ireland

English Working-Class Consciousness and the Irish Worker

The Proletariat and the English Working Class

3. Socialist Theory and Nationalism

Socialist Thought: Negation of Feudalism or Capitalism?

From Babeuf to Marx: A Curious Historiography

Marx, Engels, and Nationalism

Marxism and Nationalism

Conclusion

Part II. The Roots of Black Radicalism4. The Process and Consequences of Africa's Transmutation

The Diminution of the Diaspora

The Primary Colors of American Historical Thought

The Destruction of the African Past

Premodern Relations between Africa and Europe

The Mediterranean: Egypt, Greece, and Rome

The Dark Ages: Europe and Africa

Islam, Africa, and Europe

Europe and the Eastern Trade

Islam and the Making of Portugal

Islam and Eurocentrism

5. The Atlantic Slave Trade and African Labor

The Genoese Bourgeoisie and the Age of Discovery

Genoese Capital, the Atlantic, and a Legend

African Labor as Capital

The Ledgers of a World System

The Column Marked "British Capitalism"

6. The Historical Archaeology of the Black Radical Tradition

History and the Mere Slave

Reds, Whites, and Blacks

Black for Red

Black Resistance: The Sixteenth Century

Palmares and Seventeenth-Century Marronage

Black Resistance in North America

The Haitian Revolution

Black Brazil and Resistance

Resistance in the British West Indies

Africa: Revolt at the Source

7. The Nature of the Black Radical Tradition

Part III. Black Radicalism and Marxist Theory

8. The Formation of an Intelligentsia

Capitalism, Imperialism, and the Black Middle Classes

Western Civilization and the Renegade Black Intelligentsia

9. Historiography and the Black Radical Tradition

Du Bois and the Myths of National History

Du Bois and the Reconstruction of History and American Political Thought

Slavery and Capitalism

Labor, Capitalism, and Slavery

Slavery and Democracy

Reconstruction and the Black Elite

Du Bois, Marx, and Marxism

Bolshevism and American Communism

Black Nationalism

Blacks and Communism

Du Bois and Radical Theory

10. C. L. R. James and the Black Radical Tradition

Black Labor and the Black Middle Classes in Trinidad

The Black Victorian Becomes a Black Jacobin

British Socialism

Black Radicals in the Metropole

The Theory of the Black Jacobin

Coming to Terms with the Marxist Tradition

11. Richard Wright and the Critique of Class Theory

Marxist Theory and the Black Radical Intellectual

The Novel as Politics

Wright's Social Theory

Blacks as the Negation of Capitalism

The Outsider as a Critique of Christianity and Marxism

12. An Ending

Notes

Bibliography

Index