A «new society will come»: C.L.R. James in American Civilisation
A Caribbean communist, historian of the black and Pan-Africanist movements, C.L.R. James was a pioneer of cultural studies, often forgotten yet important for his influence on the black and anticolonial movement and workers’ struggles from the late 1930s to the 1960s. The essay presents a critical re...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Bologna
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Scienza & Politica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://scienzaepolitica.unibo.it/article/view/21151 |
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| Summary: | A Caribbean communist, historian of the black and Pan-Africanist movements, C.L.R. James was a pioneer of cultural studies, often forgotten yet important for his influence on the black and anticolonial movement and workers’ struggles from the late 1930s to the 1960s. The essay presents a critical reading of American Civilization that James wrote between 1949 and 1950 and published four years after his death in 1989. Although the manuscript was never completed, its historical meaning remains intact for its pervasive vision of the United States and its way of translating Marxian thought into the US culture and politics. While historiography has taken the manuscript into account for its contribution to cultural studies, the essay considers it as his “political manifesto” for the United States. By placing James in the intellectual context that marked his US moment (1938-1953), the essay reconstructs his critique of sociological and managerial literature, particularly Elton Mayo and Peter Drucker, and against the rise of a “counter-revolutionary philosophy,” especially Richard Weaver. American Civilization brought to light a continuous workers’ struggle in its potential connection with blacks and women’s antagonisms. |
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| ISSN: | 1590-4946 1825-9618 |