C.L.R. James and the American Century: 1938-1953

Abstract

The recent re-publication in the United States of Beyond a Boundary has brought once again considerable attention to the literary work of C.L.R. James. A central premise of this paper is that a serious examination of the life and political work of Cyril Lionel Robert James holds considerable interest for the study of the modern political world.

The introduction addresses three questions: why James, what in particular about James, and why the focus on the American years. A section then discusses James’s thirty-seven years prior to his arrival in America. It pays particular attention to his radicalization and his involvement in literature, Black nationalism, and Trotskyism.

The bulk of the paper entails a chronological discussion of James’s involvement in the American left and the development of his own brand of radical politics. In order to explain this development attention is paid to the factional debates of the time within which James sharpened his theoretical teeth.

The conclusion discusses the major themes of James’s Marxism at the time of his forced expulsion from the U.S. Larger questions concerning James’s place within Marxism and political theory are only dealt with implicitly.