Marxist History and Robin D. G. Kelley by Rachel Walker

Origins of Marxist History

In the late 18^th century, the scientific revolution challenged the dominion of religion within academia. Thus, the school of Empiricism ruled historical methodology. Empiricists utilized the scientific method to write history, they favored primary sources and objectivity over memoirs and bias. However, the social crisis happening in 1840’s Europe, ^[1]  along with the 1848 publishing of The Communist Manifesto, brought along a new school of historical analysis, Marxism. The Marxist school of history takes a clear step away from the Empiricist style, as Marxism allows for analysis and opinion by the historian. To understand a Marxist perspective, one must first understand historical materialism. Historical materialism includes what humans will do to satisfy their most basic needs, Karl Marx described it as “the production of the means to satisfy these needs, the production of material life itself.” ^[2] Marxist history is about understanding who controls the resources, who is being denied the resources, and how conflict between these groups drive the development of history. ^[3]

Marxist Methodology

The Marxist methodology has been described as “broad syntheses of history, biography, intellectual history, and ‘history from below’- studies of the common people.” ^[4] Marxist history is the most influential school of analysis, it can be found throughout any history discussing revolution or a collective struggle. Marx’s theory states that society cannot exist without an economic structure, and this structure is a four-step evolution into a socialist society. The first step being ancient society, then feudal society, capitalist society, and finally socialist society. For civilization to progress through these steps, there must be conflict between the ruling and working class. ^[5]  Despite the versatility of Marxist writing, the most influential theorists tend to only write Eurocentric histories. For instance, Christopher Hill and E. P. Thompson, famous Marxist historians, both made their name through their writings mostly about English and Russian revolutions. While the history of all people is important to document, there are groups whose histories have been neglected for far too long.

Robin D. G. Kelley

Robin D. G. Kelley is a Marxist historian currently teaching at UCLA. Kelley first found himself interested in history while in his undergrad at California State University-Long Beach, especially black history. Kelley had been a victim of a hate crime on two separate instances, once being attacked by a group of white boys causing Kelley to be hospitalized, the second being a few weeks later where police mistook Kelley for a criminal. Around this time Kelley was beginning to read revolutionary works from people like Frederick Douglass which ultimately influenced him to change his major to history and minor to black studies.^[6] Later earning his M.A. in African History and his Ph.D. in American History, both at the University of California-Los Angeles. His most influential works include Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression and Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class. There are several events in Kelley’s upbringing that perhaps shaped his mind into the distinguished Marxist historian he is today. Kelley grew up in Harlem, New York during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Being raised by a single, hippie mother caused Kelley to be exposed to the revolutionary ideas of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army.

^[7]

Kelley’s book Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression, highlights the effort of predominantly black communists to organize unions within their agricultural jobs. They used Marxist ideals and black culture to revolutionize. ^[8] Secondly, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class by Kelley is similar to Hammer and Hoe as it focused on the organization and protest efforts of the black working class during World War II. Rather than agricultural workers, Kelley focused on black protest in public spaces and industrial workers alike. ^[9] Kelley brings light to the struggle of the black working class population, who was previously overlooked in the community of Marxist historians.