Notes on Marxism and sociology in the USA

Abstract

Fifteen years ago it was fashionable to declare the American Marxist a rare species.1 Since the popularity of Marxism was considered a byproduct of economic decline, its endangered status was taken to be an ineluctable sign of the fundamental soundness of American capitalism. In retrospect this analysis seems lame at best, if only because Marxism has recently gained new strength, particularly in the universities. The evidence of this strength is all around us. For the first time, Marxian graduate programs have been instituted in several American universities in sociology as well as many of the other social sciences. Marxist scholarly journals have proliferated,2 and articles on Marxist themes occasionally make their way into mainstream journals.3 Books by Marxist writers have recently succeeded in winning several of the most prestigious awards of various professional associations. And a large number of American colleges and universities can claim to have Marxists on their faculties. It is revealing that this Marxist renaissance has occurred in the absence either of a major depression, or of any obvious qualitative changes in the American social structure.4