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35 reviews for:
Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones
Carole Boyce Davies
4.22 AVERAGE
35 reviews for:
Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones
Carole Boyce Davies
4.22 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This book is incredible in so many ways. First, it shines a light on Claudia Jones brilliance and contributions to leftist political theory and social justice activism, which the United States tried to bury from history. Second, it’s so well organized and quite beautifully written. Third, it showcases jones’ humanity in several ways - like how she expressed herself through poetry, how she made deep personal connections in the movement and in the various communities she was part of, and how she eloquently and brilliantly exposed the US government’s hypocrisy and unlawfulness while defending herself from unjust political charges that ultimately led to her exile/deportation.
informative
slow-paced
incredible book and an amazing and impactful assessment of Claudia Jones political and cultural legacy. I really appreciated that it was not a biography but a treatment what she worked for and achieved. amazing and very moving and informative and leaves me excited to dive deeper into her and her comrades' work.
i found the articulations of jones' transnational feminism and reclamation of a sort of "migrating subject" identity excellent (ie the davies' discussion and analysis of jones' position in the diaspora/pan africanism/deportation). writing was a little strange, lots of assertions of "[jones] /would have/ thought xyz thing about the future etc" and i wasn't tooo fond of the overreliance on tautological statements vs actual analysis of jones' writing. i will be reading her speeches and articles directly, particularly "International Women’s Day and the struggle for peace”
I read some iffy reviews before deciding to dive into this one but decided to give it a shot anyways. In the end, my thoughts on the book are pretty similar to many of those reviews. This book doesn't exactly work as a straight biography, doesn't exactly work as a "political biography" (in the spirit of something like Black Bolshevik by Haywood or Du Bois' multiple biographies), and doesn't exactly work as an explanation of Claudia's worldview or ideology.
I am no stranger to academic literature and to academic analysis of historical communist thinkers, but personally found this book to be pretty lacking in terms of applicability to my own self-education and strengthening of my own ideology, and think it works more as a purely academic analysis of Claudia than as any sort of educational material for people seeking political understanding.
If you are going to read this I'd highly recommend having at least some knowledge of black feminist history and black feminist critiques of the white American feminist movement prior to the 1980s, and at least a basic knowledge of Marxism-Leninism. I went in with both and decided to jump ship about a third of the way through, but you may be able to get something out of it. I also attempted to listen to this at audiobook while at work and think you might get a bit more out of it with a print copy and lots of skimming.
I may return to it one day, but have decided to shelve it for now in favor of more pressing readings. Davies apparently has a collection of Claudia's writings that I will be purchasing instead and that will probably give me more of what I'm looking for.
I am no stranger to academic literature and to academic analysis of historical communist thinkers, but personally found this book to be pretty lacking in terms of applicability to my own self-education and strengthening of my own ideology, and think it works more as a purely academic analysis of Claudia than as any sort of educational material for people seeking political understanding.
If you are going to read this I'd highly recommend having at least some knowledge of black feminist history and black feminist critiques of the white American feminist movement prior to the 1980s, and at least a basic knowledge of Marxism-Leninism. I went in with both and decided to jump ship about a third of the way through, but you may be able to get something out of it. I also attempted to listen to this at audiobook while at work and think you might get a bit more out of it with a print copy and lots of skimming.
I may return to it one day, but have decided to shelve it for now in favor of more pressing readings. Davies apparently has a collection of Claudia's writings that I will be purchasing instead and that will probably give me more of what I'm looking for.
“The only Black woman among communists tried in the United States, sentenced for crimes against the state, incarcerated, and then deported, Claudia Jones seems to have simply disappeared from major consideration in a range of histories… How could someone who had lived in the United States from the age of eight, who had been so central to Black and communist political organizing throughout the 1930s and 1940s, up to the mid-1950s, simply disappear?”
McCarthyism: the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of treason and subversion, especially when related to socialism, anarchism, and communism. Usually accomplished in a public forum for purposes of propaganda.
Chances are good, especially if you’re a white American and a product of American public schools, that you have never heard mention of Claudia Jones and her contributions to the anti-imperialist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. That’s because the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), verifiable by their own documentation, waged an effective campaign to erase her from our collective consciousness. In Jones’ case, her crimes were her ideas and her ideas were deemed too dangerous for public consumption.
“As a negro woman communist of West Indian descent, I was a thorn in their side in my opposition to Jim Crow racist discrimination against sixteen million Negro Americans in the United States, in my work to redress these grievances, for unity of workers, for women’s rights, and for my general political activity urging the American people to help by their struggles to change the present foreign and domestic policy of the United States.” ~CJ
Carole Boyce Davies’ Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones is much more of an assessment than a description. If you read biographies simply because you want to be entertained, this is not your book. This is a high caliber, university level dissertation. Stay focused and take notes.
“The fine talk about the free flow and exchange of ideas internationally, and about freedom of speech in the U.S. rings false when placed against the desperate attempt to deport me because of my political views. I am proud of my political views because I learned them in American schools. The traditions of democratic struggle exemplified by Franklin, Lincoln, Jefferson, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth are the ideas that inspired me and my views. Why are they so frightened by the political view of one negro woman?” ~Claudia Jones, 1955
“This rediscovery of Claudia Jones, the individual subject, reinstates a radical Black female intellectual-activist position into a range of African diaspora, left history, and Black feminist debates.” ~Carole Boyce Davies, 2007
McCarthyism: the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of treason and subversion, especially when related to socialism, anarchism, and communism. Usually accomplished in a public forum for purposes of propaganda.
Chances are good, especially if you’re a white American and a product of American public schools, that you have never heard mention of Claudia Jones and her contributions to the anti-imperialist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. That’s because the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), verifiable by their own documentation, waged an effective campaign to erase her from our collective consciousness. In Jones’ case, her crimes were her ideas and her ideas were deemed too dangerous for public consumption.
“As a negro woman communist of West Indian descent, I was a thorn in their side in my opposition to Jim Crow racist discrimination against sixteen million Negro Americans in the United States, in my work to redress these grievances, for unity of workers, for women’s rights, and for my general political activity urging the American people to help by their struggles to change the present foreign and domestic policy of the United States.” ~CJ
Carole Boyce Davies’ Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones is much more of an assessment than a description. If you read biographies simply because you want to be entertained, this is not your book. This is a high caliber, university level dissertation. Stay focused and take notes.
“The fine talk about the free flow and exchange of ideas internationally, and about freedom of speech in the U.S. rings false when placed against the desperate attempt to deport me because of my political views. I am proud of my political views because I learned them in American schools. The traditions of democratic struggle exemplified by Franklin, Lincoln, Jefferson, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth are the ideas that inspired me and my views. Why are they so frightened by the political view of one negro woman?” ~Claudia Jones, 1955
“This rediscovery of Claudia Jones, the individual subject, reinstates a radical Black female intellectual-activist position into a range of African diaspora, left history, and Black feminist debates.” ~Carole Boyce Davies, 2007
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I thought this was excellent. From this book, I've gained a lot of respect for Claudia Jones as a theorist, journalist, poet, and cultural worker. I also took away that Jones should really be regarded as a foundational [Black] feminist thinker. She was so ahead of her time in her writings and analyses.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I highly recommend Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones, especially if you have left leaning feminist anti-racist, anti-capitalist anti-imperialist politics. If the black power, civil rights and labor movements, anti-war protests, and women's rights advocates inspire you, this is a perfect fit. It also gives insight into the red scare, which it seems, is much needed - the discourse isn't much different now as in her time.
As a black communist woman, she was a symbol for much of what the US tried/tries to erase. Since the US Communist Party was criminalized, an 807 page FBI file was compiled, and she was imprisoned and deported for her beliefs and writings. She wrote about peace and equal rights and so was an enemy of the state.
My favorite quote summing up the case against her:
The publication of her ideas was what constituted her criminal offense. Now that the material is all available to us, we can see that in its use of "literary evidence," the state's case rested on literary misinterpretation, flawed and biased analyses, and deliberately superficial critical reading.
As a black communist woman, she was a symbol for much of what the US tried/tries to erase. Since the US Communist Party was criminalized, an 807 page FBI file was compiled, and she was imprisoned and deported for her beliefs and writings. She wrote about peace and equal rights and so was an enemy of the state.
My favorite quote summing up the case against her:
The publication of her ideas was what constituted her criminal offense. Now that the material is all available to us, we can see that in its use of "literary evidence," the state's case rested on literary misinterpretation, flawed and biased analyses, and deliberately superficial critical reading.