Black Marxism

by Robinson, Cedric J.

• ISBN13: 9780807848296
• ISBN10: 0807848298
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

In this influential work, first published in 1993, 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, he shows, 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 analysis of African American history needs to acknowledge this.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Robin D. G. Kelley
Preface to the 2000 Edition	xxvii
Preface	xxxv
Acknowledgments	xxxvii
Introduction	1	(8)
Part 1 The Emergence and Limitations of European Radicalism
Racial Capitalism: The Nonobjective Character of Capitalist Development	9	(20)
Europe's Formation	10	(3)
The First Bourgeoisie	13	(5)
The Modern World Bourgeoisie	18	(3)
The Lower Orders	21	(3)
The Effects of Western Civilization on Capitalism	24	(5)
The English Working Class as the Mirror of Production	29	(16)
Poverty and Industrial Capitalism	31	(2)
The Reaction of English Labor	33	(3)
The Colonization of Ireland	36	(3)
English Working-Class Consciousness and the Irish Worker	39	(2)
The Proletariat and the English Working Class	41	(4)
Socialist Theory and Nationalism	45	(26)
Socialist Thought: Negation of Feudalism or Capitalism?	46	(3)
From Babeuf to Marx: A Curious Historiography	49	(3)
Marx, Engels, and Nationalism	52	(10)
Marxism and Nationalism	62	(3)
Conclusion	65	(6)
Part 2 The Roots of Black Radicalism
The Process and Consequences of Africa's Transmutation	71	(30)
The Diminution of the Diaspora	72	(2)
The Primary Colors of American Historical Thought	74	(7)
The Destruction of the African Past	81	(1)
Premodern Relations between Africa and Europe	82	(1)
The Mediterranean: Egypt, Greece, and Rome	83	(2)
The Dark Ages: Europe and Africa	85	(2)
Islam, Africa, and Europe	87	(2)
Europe and the Eastern Trade	89	(2)
Islam and the Making of Portugal	91	(6)
Islam and Eurocentrism	97	(4)
The Atlantic Slave Trade and African Labor	101	(20)
The Genoese Bourgeoisie and the Age of Discovery	103	(3)
Genoese Capital, the Atlantic, and a Legend	106	(3)
African Labor as Capital	109	(2)
The Ledgers of a World System	111	(5)
The Column Marked ``British Capitalism''	116	(5)
The Historical Archaeology of the Black Radical Tradition	121	(46)
History and the Mere Slave	123	(2)
Reds, Whites, and Blacks	125	(3)
Black for Red	128	(2)
Black Resistance: The Sixteenth Century	130	(2)
Palmares and Seventeenth-Century Marronage	132	(8)
Black Resistance in North America	140	(4)
The Haitian Revolution	144	(5)
Black Brazil and Resistance	149	(6)
Resistance in the British West Indies	155	(9)
Africa: Revolt at the Source	164	(3)
The Nature of the Black Radical Tradition	167	(8)
Part 3 Black Radicalism and Marxist Theory
The Formation of an Intelligentsia	175	(10)
Capitalism, Imperialism, and the Black Middle Classes	177	(4)
Western Civilization and the Renegade Black Intelligentsia	181	(4)
Historiography and the Black Radical Tradition	185	(56)
Du Bois and the Myths of National History	185	(10)
Du Bois and the Reconstruction of History and American Political Thought	195	(4)
Slavery and Capitalism	199	(1)
Labor, Capitalism, and Slavery	200	(3)
Slavery and Democracy	203	(2)
Reconstruction and the Black Elite	205	(2)
Du Bois, Marx, and Marxism	207	(1)
Bolshevism and American Communism	208	(4)
Black Nationalism	212	(6)
Blacks and Communism	218	(10)
Du Bois and Radical Theory	228	(13)
C. L. R. James and the Black Radical Tradition	241	(46)
Black Labor and the Black Middle Classes in Trinidad	241	(10)
The Black Victorian Becomes a Black Jacobin	251	(6)
British Socialism	257	(3)
Black Radicals in the Metropole	260	(10)
The Theory of the Black Jacobin	270	(8)
Coming to Terms with the Marxist Tradition	278	(9)
Richard Wright and the Critique of Class Theory	287	(20)
Marxist Theory and the Black Radical Intellectual	287	(4)
The Novel as Politics	291	(2)
Wright's Social Theory	293	(6)
Blacks as the Negation of Capitalism	299	(2)
The Outsider as a Critique of Christianity and Marxism	301	(6)
An Ending	307	(12)
Notes	319	(90)
Bibliography	409	(22)
Index	431