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A review by aegagrus
C.L.R. James: A Political Biography by Kent Worcester
3.25
Though titled A Political Biography, this is more accurately an intellectual biography. Worcester's project is almost bibliographical; James' prolific writing is continually present and liberally quoted. This approach yields a nuanced sketch of James' eclectic and creative way of making sense of the world. Often, his ideas seem timely. He was a Pan-Africanist, but a staunch defender of the Western canon. He believed in the working class' spontaneous and creative power to birth whole constellations of interconnected social movements, but was never fully aligned with the New Left. He became a post-Trotskyist, but never a post-Marxist. He was a humanist and an individualist, but never abandoned the prospect of mass mobilization. He had a lot to say about the worlds of art, music, film, and sport, but never saw himself among the "critics". The resonances with our own time are plentiful and provocative.
Cleaving so well to the primary source material, Worcester manages to avoid eulogizing his subject. He is explicit about what he sees as the defects of James' work. He is clear-eyed about James' lack of influence or audience at various points, from the Johnson-Forest tendency to his foray into Trinidadian politics. He leaves us a clear account of why C.L.R. James matters without succumbing to the biographer's temptation for overstatement.
While this editorial balance makes for a good reference book of James' written legacy, it does not always make for a good biography. Worcester is often cursory about the non-written social context of the various epochs of James' life. He eschews not only hagiography, but the project of presenting a human narrative altogether. An arc does emerge, through the recurrent and evolving themes of James' writings, but Worcester does not always string things together in the way he might. The biography's structure, heavily indebted to intellectual history, is simple but not always clear. We do not always get a great sense of C.L.R. James the man, and the aspects of his life which do not fit as neatly into the main body of his thought are sometimes given short shrift. We are told, for instance, about how he saw cricket in social and political terms. We are told less about what the cricket pitch, in and of itself, meant to him.
Despite its gaps, Worcester's biography accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish with efficiency, nuance, and clarity. This is an excellent resource for someone trying to understand the life and thought of C.L.R. James, though not a self-sufficient resource.
Cleaving so well to the primary source material, Worcester manages to avoid eulogizing his subject. He is explicit about what he sees as the defects of James' work. He is clear-eyed about James' lack of influence or audience at various points, from the Johnson-Forest tendency to his foray into Trinidadian politics. He leaves us a clear account of why C.L.R. James matters without succumbing to the biographer's temptation for overstatement.
While this editorial balance makes for a good reference book of James' written legacy, it does not always make for a good biography. Worcester is often cursory about the non-written social context of the various epochs of James' life. He eschews not only hagiography, but the project of presenting a human narrative altogether. An arc does emerge, through the recurrent and evolving themes of James' writings, but Worcester does not always string things together in the way he might. The biography's structure, heavily indebted to intellectual history, is simple but not always clear. We do not always get a great sense of C.L.R. James the man, and the aspects of his life which do not fit as neatly into the main body of his thought are sometimes given short shrift. We are told, for instance, about how he saw cricket in social and political terms. We are told less about what the cricket pitch, in and of itself, meant to him.
Despite its gaps, Worcester's biography accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish with efficiency, nuance, and clarity. This is an excellent resource for someone trying to understand the life and thought of C.L.R. James, though not a self-sufficient resource.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, and Slavery