The Rise and Fall of Marxist Perspectives feat. Gabriel Raeburn

Emancipations Podcast

We are joined by historian Gabriel Raeburn to discuss the thought of Eugene Genovese, a firebrand Marxist historian who fundamentally transformed the academic study of slavery in the United States and who, with Christopher Lasch, attempted to launch Marxist Perspectives, a serious Marxist-centered journal that brought together the entirety of the global intellectual literati and leading Marxist scholars of the time.

With the backing of the most prominent Marxists of the time, from E.P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, Frederic Jameson and with support from young scholars such as Barbara Fields, the journal promised to usher in a new era of Marxist intellectual output that aimed to crossover to the public. But the journal soon dissolved after only two years.

With C. Derick Varn of @VarnVlog we discuss the dynamics of what led to the dissolution of this journal and what these lessons can teach us today as we aim to infuse Marxist thinking and scholarship beyond the academy. We also discuss the thought of Eugene Genovese and Christopher Lasch, the two primary scholars behind Marxist Perspectives. To learn more about Gabriel Raeburn and to be in touch with him should you have access to any letters of Genovese for his ongoing research, please find his bio here.