Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
I can say, without a trace of hyperbole, that this book changed my life.
Robin D. G. Kelley, from the Foreword
Review
A towering achievement. There is simply nothing like it in the history of black radical thought.
Cornel West, Monthly Review
Review
Black Marxism provides a well-documented foundation upon which to build ideological and mass social movements.Phylon
Review
"A towering achievement. There is simply nothing like it in the history of black radical thought.
Cornel West, Monthly Review"
Review
Reflective and thought-provoking, a welcome contribution to the African/Afro-American studies discipline.
Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
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
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [409]-429) and index.
Table of Contents
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