DU BOIS AND MARX, DU BOIS AND MARXISM

W. E. B. Du Bois’s engagement with the thought of Karl Marx forms an important aspect of his intellectual biography, yet its contours crystallize explicitly only late in his written work, and its development prior to the 1930s remains insufficiently understood. In order to bring to light the mix of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Du Bois review 2020, Vol.17 (1), p.33-54
Main Author: Saman, Michael J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Bolshevism
College students
Communism
Documentation
Du Bois, W E B (1868-1963)
Economics
Marxism
Political parties
Russian Revolution
Socialism
State of the Discipline
Teaching
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Summary:W. E. B. Du Bois’s engagement with the thought of Karl Marx forms an important aspect of his intellectual biography, yet its contours crystallize explicitly only late in his written work, and its development prior to the 1930s remains insufficiently understood. In order to bring to light the mix of criticisms, reservations, ideals, and inspirations that shape this reception, this article explores its trajectory as exhaustively as the available documentation permits, beginning from Du Bois’s early training in economics as a university student, continuing through his increasing attention to socialism in the early 1900s and his embrace of Soviet communism in the 1920s, and culminating in the 1930s in his teaching of Marx at Atlanta University and the overtly Marxian positions he adopts in Black Reconstruction (1935).
ISSN:1742-058X
1742-0598
DOI:10.1017/S1742058X20000089