C.L.R. James and the Study of Culture

The West Indian intellectual and activist C.L.R James is increasingly recognized as one of the twentieth-century's most original and important voices. Alongside his many pioneering historical and political interventions, James was a penetrating commentator on cultural matters, writing with flair and insight about a vast range of topics from Shakespeare to Joe Louis, calypso to Herman Melville, Jackson Pollock to Greek tragedy. This book provides the first, full-length study of this aspect of James' work. Written in a lively, accessible style, it draws out the central - and often provocative- claims of his cultural analyses, and places these in their historical and political context, arguing that James should be considered key reading for anyone interested in making sense of contemporary culture and its political ramifications