Power in the Streets: The Political Thought of C.L.R. James

Undergraduate / Graduate

Born in Trinidad in 1901, C.L.R. James was the preeminent radical intellectual of the 20th Century. This course will trace the political thought of C.L.R. James over more than a half-century, from the publication of his short story "La Divina Pastora" in 1927 to the speeches and writing of his final years before his death in 1989. Over his lifetime, James's political thought developed in accordance with his application of Marxist theory to his engagement with working people in Trinidad, London, Detroit, and elsewhere. In 1982, an octogenarian James paused to reflect on "where [his] Marxism ha[d] arrived at after events in Poland and Ghana." This course will accordingly survey his writings and speeches in his roles as novelist, sports journalist, historian, editor, organizer, and orator. Through texts such as Minty Alley, The Black Jacobins, A History of Pan-African Revolt, Facing Reality, Party Politics in the West Indies, and Beyond a Boundary, this course will engage the organic conditions of working-class revolt and spontaneous insurgency that surrounded his signature writings.