Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones

Carole Boyce Davies

Published by Duke University Press 2007

Left of Karl Marx

The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones

Carole Boyce Davies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822390329

Overview
Contents

About this book

Assesses the activism, writing, and legacy of Claudia Jones (1915–1964), a pioneering Afro-Caribbean radical intellectual active in the U.S. and U.K.

Author / Editor information

Carole Boyce Davies is Professor of African–New World Studies and English at Florida International University. She is the author of Black Women, Writing, and Identity: Migrations of the Subject; the editor of the Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora (forthcoming) and Decolonizing the Academy: African Diaspora Studies; and a coeditor of The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities.

Reviews

“Carole Boyce Davies has rendered a unique service in restoring to proper recognition the life and achievements of the Trinidad-born political activist and feminist Claudia Jones. From the turbulent struggles of Harlem, U.S.A. in the 1930s and 1940s to London in the 1950s and 1960s, Claudia Jones became a symbol of resistance and the standard by which others would measure their own integrity of commitment. Left of Karl Marx is the biography of an era of the most intense ideological combat—where reputations were assassinated and careers erased by a single rumor of incorrect political affiliation. Here is the story of a singular triumph whose legacy has nourished the lives of another generation.”—George Lamming, author of In the Castle of My Skin and The Pleasures of Exile

“Carole Boyce Davies has vividly brought to life the work and struggles of Claudia Jones in the U.S.A. and Great Britain in her new book, Left of Karl Marx. Boyce Davies possesses that unique combination of being both a scholarly researcher and a writer capable of clear and persuasive language. The reader is presented with a remarkably readable and informative study of a woman who was equally adept in her writing and public speaking on feminism, and as a social pioneer, a political analyst, and an avowed adversary of racism. This book removes Claudia Jones from the shadow of the great bust of Marx to the front row of the black activists and thinkers of the twentieth century, and that is where she belongs.”—Donald Hinds, author of Journey to an Illusion: The West Indian in Britain

“This book fills a lacuna in the historical understanding of black left radicalism and socialist-oriented feminism in the United States and the Caribbean. In this era of twenty-first-century corporate globalization, it reunites us with a transnational radical and anti-capitalist past through the examination of the extraordinary life, work, and political philosophy of Claudia Jones. This work reminds us that the U.S. and British radical traditions had diverse memberships, which included black, communist, and feminist women of whom Trinidad-born Claudia Jones was a remarkable example. Carole Boyce Davies has given us a well-researched, detailed analysis of this communist, feminist, intellectual, activist, and artistic woman of Caribbean origin. This is a long-awaited treasure for which many will be eternally grateful.”—Rhoda E. Reddock, author of Interrogating Caribbean Masculinities

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Chronology Publicly Available Download PDF	xxiii
Introduction. Recovering the Radical Black Female Subject Anti-Imperialism, Feminism, and Activism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Women’s Rights/Workers’ Rights/Anti-Imperialism Challenging the Superexploitation of Black Working-Class Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
2. From ‘‘Half the World’’ to the Whole World Journalism as Black Transnational Political Practice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
3. Prison Blues Literary Activism and a Poetry of Resistance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
4. Deportation: The Other Politics of Diaspora ‘‘What is an ocean between us? We know how to build bridges.’’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
5. Carnival and Diaspora Caribbean Community, Happiness, and Activism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
6. Piece Work/Peace Work Self-Construction versus State Repression Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 340
Illustrations
- Other: 31 b&w photos

eBook

Published: February 5, 2008
ISBN: 9780822390329