No Politics But Class Politics - Softcover

Walter Benn Michaels; Adolph Reed, Jr.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 191247557X ISBN 13: 9781912475575

Publisher: Eris, 2023

Synopsis

Denouncing racism and celebrating diversity have become central mainstays of progressive politics: for many on the left, social justice consists of equitable distribution of wealth, power, and esteem among racial groups. But as Adolph Reed, Jr. and Walter Benn Michaels argue in this groundbreaking collection of essays, the emphasis seems to be tragically misplaced. Not only does a fixation with racial disparities distract from the pervasive influence of class―it actually legitimises economic inequality. Adolph Reed, Jr. is the towering radical theorist of American democracy of his generation.” ―Cornel West “Walter Benn Michaels is cunning, brilliant, acutely suggestive, exhilarating to read.” ―Eric Lott “For decades, Adolph Reed and Walter Benn Michaels have brought common as well as uncommon sense to the analysis of politics under oligarchic late capitalism.” ―Barbara J. Fields “Wokelords and anti-racist liberals will be frustrated, enraged, and defeated. This book pushes us closer towards the uncompromising, bare-knuckled anti-capitalist movement we so desperately need.” ―Cedric Johnson “An exhilarating journey that swaps the orthodoxies of contemporary progressive culture for a class politics rooted in universalism.” ―James Bloodworth “Adolph Reed, Jr. and Walter Benn Michaels have been among the clearest voices critiquing the dominant race reductionism in American intellectual life and proposing a real egalitarian alternative.” ―Bhaskar Sunkara “Anyone interested in the politics of race and class must push aside the dogma of identity and grapple with what Reed, Jr. and Michaels have been arguing for decades.–Jodi Dean “These essays tell the story of the last seven decades, charting the decline of the left and American politics. The result is as rich as it is rare: a long view that is pressing and immediate.” ―Corey Robin “Reed, Jr. and Michaels take a hammer to common ways of thinking about race, class, inequality and identity, revealing ugly truths, and challenging us out of our comfort zones.” ―Kenan Malik

About this title

About the Author

Walter Benn Michaels is Professor of English at the University of Illinois Chicago. An influential scholar in the fields of literary theory and American literary history, Michaels is also a high-profile polemicist whose political writings have appeared in publications including The American Prospect and the London Review of Books. His most recent books are The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality and The Beauty of a Social Problem: Photography, Autonomy, Economy.

Adolph Reed Jr. is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. A veteran activist and a prolific analyst of the politics of race and class, his books include The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon: The Crisis of Purpose in Afro-American Politics, Stirrings in the Jug: Black Politics in the Post-Segregation Era and Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene. His essays have appeared in The Nation, Harpers and Jacobin, among other publications.

Edition details

• Publisher: Eris
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 191247557X
• ISBN 13: 9781912475575
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 392
• Editor: Anton Jäger, Daniel Zamora