Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition

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Univ of North Carolina Press, Oct 12, 2005 - Social Science - 480 pages
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.

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Contents

Introduction
1
Part 1 The Emergence and Limitations of European Radicalism
7
Part 2 The Roots of Black Radicalism
69
Part 3 Black Radicalism and Marxist Theory
173
Notes
319
Bibliography
409
Index
431
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About the author (2005)

Cedric J. Robinson (1940-2016) was professor of Black Studies and political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His books include The Terms of Order, Black Movements in America, and Anthropology of Marxism.

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