Modern Politics

by C.L.R. James

Originally delivered as a series of lectures in Trinidad in 1960, James expounds on the relevance of Marxism, and revolution, for our times, from Charlie Chaplin to the Workers' Councils.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, Economics, Philosophy, Political Science

167 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

C. L. R. James (1901–1989), a Trinidadian historian, political activist, and writer, is the author of The Black Jacobins, an influential study of the Haitian Revolution and the classic book on sport and culture, Beyond a Boundary. His play Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History was recently discovered in the archives and published Duke University Press.

Reviews

[Dan]

Woof. This is a fucking mess.

I love The Black Jacobins, it's a fantastic revolutionary history of Haiti and their heroic struggle for freedom. But nearly everything else I've read from James is a mishmash of idealistic nonsense.

In these lectures he veers wildly from one topic to the next, never settling long enough for the audience to examine whether his points make sense. He lionizes the "freedom" of the Greek city states, despite the fact that the entire existence of their society was reliant on the brutal enslavement of half their population. He talks about "Merry England" and implies the serfs were happy under feudalism. He demonizes the USSR and upholds FDR, Churchill and Eisenhower. He stands staunchly against colonialism but dismisses the possibility that the thousands of years of history in Asia may have something to teach us beyond "Western Civilization." He has an entire section on the Hungarian "revolution" that is drawn from a book published by the CIA (read up on the Congress for Cultural Freedom). James seems to have internalized so much Western propaganda and ideology uncritically that he turned himself into a sort of anarcho syndicalist, radical sounding enough to get applause, but totally opposed to any sort of worker organizing that can actually achieve the revolutionary goals he supports.

Idealism is a helluva drug.

[Eric Marcy]

A solid primer on Marxism through lens of recapping the general arc of Western Civilization (going back from Plato and Aristotle to the time that James gave these lectures in 1960). James provides an approachable summation of his own brand of Marxism, particularly notable for his critiques of Stalinist “state capitalism.”

CLR James has quickly become one of my favorite thinkers to engage with, and this series of lectures is clearly intended as a intro-pitch to his Marxist philosophy and ideology. As such, some sections fall more into broad historical recap than his usual close insights into human psychology within broad historical narrative and movements, but they are useful nonetheless. (I can see this being an excellent accompaniment to an initial reading of Marx and Engels). James is at his best when he criticizes supposed “communist” revolutionaries (Stalinism and the Soviet Union his primary targets, this series given in the 1960s)) for utilizing brutal, dehumanizing methods and organizing structures antithetical to James’ ideal of the “good life” and simply re-encoding harmful capitalist logics. James’ conceptions of progress are nuanced, thoughtful, and consistent, and his voice rings both as revolutionary cry and cautionary warning to modern readers. His insights into philosophy, art, culture, and religion are immensely valuable (his postcolonial reading of the book of Revelation is concise but superb).

“Mariners, Renegades and Castaways” remains my favorite James work so far, but this definitely keeps the intellectual crush alive.

[Ron]

C.L.R. James' genius is widely exhibited in the lectures collected in this book.

History, politics, philosophy, marxism, literature, film, and other subjects are analyzed and discussed in a captivating and enlightening manner.

This is a book to be enjoyed over and over.

[m.bryan.welton]

some minor and some more substantive disagreements aside, for covering so much ground, this is a brilliant example of the virtues of 'making it plain'. how can we do this to describe the forces that shape our current moment?

[Jim]

Easily my least favorite C.L.R. James book, by far. No doubting James' intellectual rigour, but this book practically worships at the altar of Western Civilization, as most people understand the term. Taken at face value, one would think James has come to grips with the extreme oppression resulting from a World Capitalist System and is rather OK with the results. There is no revolutionary fire in this book at all. I cannot remember anyone of note here that isn't a White European male, excepting his section on Arendt at the end. No mention of anyone African, no mention of an Black Intellectuals, no mention of any Civil Rights or Black Power activists, no mention of any females besides Arendt. Disappointing. He prefaces all this adoration of the White Man's World by saying it wasn't the only game in town (my phrasing) but proceeds to detail out no other game but the White Man's. Huh. I can say I expected different, very much so. But I can also say much of this book is laden with shallow summaries of major world events, major thinkers, and major theoretical concepts. Having read extensively in history, politics, and theory, there was nothing here that I I did not already know, and in much greater detail with better analysis. I almost felt like James was speaking to a crowd full of sycophants, White Liberals/Progressives, and psuedo-intellectuals. Maybe James felt his bona fides mean he needn't say anything "reactionary" or truly Marxist and rock his boat of academic/cultural safety, much like too many social justice warriors/intellectuals who eventually seek fame and popularity inside a system they once savagely railed against. Beyonce as (not really a) Feminist, maybe? Ha! As Audre Lorde says about the master's tools... Anyway. This was a terrible read for me. White Supremacy dressed up as Western Civ is still a fucked and false intellectual endeavour.

[C. Varn]

In this, one sees C.L.R. James strange account of politics--while primarily Marxist in outlook, one gets the feeling that more than a little of Oswald Spengler inflects his ideas. He celebrates the Greek polis system without dealing with the slave-holding nature particularly deeply, he celebrates the Hungarian uprising (which I see as a mixed event neither solely progressive as often portrayed in New Left and liberal historiography nor solely a "fascist reaction promoted by the CIA" as some Marxist-Leninists like over-correct against anti-communist sources) but does so from mostly Western perspective, and he seems to praise African civilization along the model of "Western civilization." Indeed, this thinking on civilizational terms comes from Spengler and is more common thinkers like Alexander Dugin and Samuel Huntington than most Marxists, and despite his love of Hegel, this makes James' work here in particular "undialectical"--a term often underdefined and abused by many Marxists--but here he doesn't see the relationship of some of positive aspects of "Western civilization" intimately tied to things that James' opposes.

[Sam Whitehill]

James delivers a mostly off the cuff history of politics starting in Ancient Greece. It’s impressive.

[Yonis]

Brilliant! This pamphlet sized book is a collection of lectures given by C.L.R James in the 60's that impressively show his gigantic-ranging erudition. Everything from Trotskyism to the machismo of Ernest Hemingway is dispensed and discussed in detail in these collected lectures; and his ability to shift from literature to politics to religion, is proof that C.L.R James was an encyclopedic polymath. This book just may have sparked my interest in Marxism.

[Shehryar Qazi]

would trade my life just to see him deliver this in person