Reviews

C. L. R. James on the Negro Question by

mxunsmiley's review against another edition

4.0

I think the ratio of content written by James himself and the commentary on his work and life was too skewed toward the latter. I did enjoy reading the history and context behind his writing, but I also wanted to judge it myself. Otherwise, it's strange how certain sentiments are still relevant today, particularly those concerning mainstream culture.

ptune's review against another edition

4.0

Remarkable reading this book almost a century after some of the essays contained within, and finding harrowing parallels to our own socioeconomic catastrophes. Liberals and conservatives might write off his profound oracular abilities as dumb luck—they did the same for Trotsky, Lenin, Marx, and Engels. Of course James and his intellectual forebears all shared the same dialectical understanding of history, which gave way to their generally quite accurate predictions, their harsh polemics, and their astute geopolitical analyses. I am still a novice to Marxist theory, but this was an excellent primer for one of the most important Marxists, and to the 20th Century Marxist movement as a whole.