Table Of ContentMarxismandHistoricalPractice
VolumeII
Historical Materialism
Book Series
EditorialBoard
SébastienBudgen(Paris)
SteveEdwards(London)
JuanGrigera(London)
MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam)
PeterThomas(London)
volume99
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm
Marxism and Historical Practice
InterventionsandAppreciations
volume ii
By
BryanD.Palmer
leiden | boston
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Palmer,BryanD.,author.
[Essays.Selections]
Marxismandhistoricalpractice/byBryanD.Palmer.
volumescm.–(Historicalmaterialismbookseries;volume98)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Contents:VolumeI.Interpretiveessaysonclassformationandclassstruggle–VolumeII.Interventions
andAppreciations.
ISBN978-90-04-24385-9(vol.1:hardback:alk.paper)–ISBN978-90-04-29722-7(vol.2:hardback:alk.
paper)–ISBN978-90-04-30183-2(2vol.set:hardback:alk.paper)–ISBN978-90-04-24386-6(e-book:alk.
paper)
1.Workingclass–Canada–History.2.Labor–Canada–History.3.Labormovement–Canada–History.4.
Socialconflict–Canada–History.5.Socialconflict–UnitedStates–History.6.Communism–Canada–History.
7.Communism–UnitedStates–History.8.Marxianhistoriography.I.Title.
HD8106.5.P3472015
335.4'11–dc23
2015025689
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issn1570-1522
isbn978-90-04-29722-7(hardback,volume99)
isbn978-90-04-30183-2(hardback,set,volumes98&99)
isbn978-90-04-30184-9(e-book)
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Toallthe‘beautifulandineffectualutopiansandhissingfactionalists’who
makelifeontherevolutionaryleftexciting,challenging,andrewarding.
∵
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
part 1
TheoreticalandHistoriographicInterventions
IntroductiontoPart1 9
1 CriticalTheory,HistoricalMaterialismandtheOstensibleEndof
Marxism:ThePovertyofTheoryRevisited 13
2 HistoricalMaterialismandtheWritingofCanadianHistory:
ADialecticalView 44
3 WritingaboutCanadianWorkers:AHistoriographicOverview 69
part 2
ReelHistory:CommentontheCinematic
IntroductiontoPart2 99
4 NightintheCapitalist,ColdWarCity:NoirandtheCulturalPoliticsof
Darkness 103
5 TheHandsThatBuiltAmerica:AClass-PoliticsAppreciationof
MartinScorsese’sGangsofNewYork 123
6 SugarMan’sSweetKiss:TheArtistFormerly,andNowAgain,Known
asRodriguez 153
viii contents
part 3
Historiography:TheRevolutionaryLeft
IntroductiontoPart3 173
7 RethinkingtheHistoriographyofUnitedStatesCommunism:
QuestioningAmericanRadicalism 177
8 BeforeBraverman:HarryFrankelandtheAmericanWorkers’
Movement 215
9 ThePersonal,thePolitical,andPermanentRevolution:ErnestMandel
andtheConflictedLegaciesofTrotskyism 228
part 4
Appreciations
IntroductiontoPart4 247
10 Hobsbawm’sHistory:MetropolitanMarxismandAnalytic
Breadth 250
11 Hobsbawm’sPolitics:TheForwardMarchofthePopularFront
Halted 261
12 JamesPatrickCannon:RevolutionaryContinuityandClass-Struggle
PoliticsintheUnitedStates,1890–1974 272
13 ParadoxandtheThompson‘SchoolofAwkwardness’ 294
References 315
Index 361
Acknowledgements
Permission to republish material that first appeared elsewhere is gratefully
acknowledged.IamindebtedtothescholarlyjournalsLabour/LeTravail,for-
merlyknownasLabour/LeTravailleur,HistoireSociale/SocialHistory,TheRe-
view of Radical Political Economics, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, International
ReviewofSocialHistory,OnlineJournaloftheCanadianHistoricalAssociation,
LeftHistory, HistoricalMaterialism, AmericanCommunistHistory; to the left-
wingpublicationsAgainsttheCurrentandMonthlyReview;andtothepublish-
ersMcGill-Queen’sUniversityPress,OxfordUniversityPress,Verso,Academic
Press,MerlinPress,EscuelaNacionaldeAntopolígiaeHistoria,JacaBook,and
ManchesterUniversityPress.Intheorderinwhichtheyappearinthisvolume
ofMarxismandHistoricalPracticespecificpermissionstoreprintareasfollows:
Palmer,BryanD.1993,‘CriticalTheory,HistoricalMaterialism,andtheOstensibleEnd
ofMarxism:ThePovertyofTheoryRevisited’,InternationalReviewofSocialHistory,
38(August),Partii,133–62.
2006,‘HistoricalMaterialismandtheWritingofCanadianHistory:ADialect-
icalView’,OnlineJournaloftheCanadianHistoricalAssociation,NewSeries,17,33–
60.
2010,‘Canada’,inHistoriesofLabour:NationalandInternationalPerspectives,
editedbyJoanAllen,AlanCampbellandJohnMcIlroy,Pontypool,Wales:Merlin
Press,196–230.Publishedhereunderthetitle‘WritingaboutCanadianWorkers:A
HistoriographicOverview’.
1997,‘NightintheCapitalist,ColdWarCity:NoirandtheCulturalPoliticsof
Darkness’,LeftHistory,5,57–76.
2003,‘TheHandsthatBuiltAmerica:AClass-PoliticsAppreciationofMartin
Scorcese’sTheGangsofNewYork’,HistoricalMaterialism,11,317–45.
2013,‘ALifeBeyondImagination:TheArtistFormerly,andAgain,Knownas
Rodriguez’,AgainsttheCurrent,162,31–35,44.Publishedhereinanadaptedformas
‘SugarMan’sSweetKiss:TheArtistFormerly,andNowAgain,KnownasRodriguez’.
2003,‘RethinkingtheHistoriographyofUnitedStatesCommunism’,American
CommunistHistory,2,139–73.
1999,‘BeforeBraverman:HarryFrankelandtheAmericanWorkers’Movement’,
MonthlyReview,50,33–46.
2010,‘ThePersonal,thePolitical,andPermanentRevolution:ErnestMandel
andtheConflictedLegaciesofTrotskyism’,InternationalReviewofSocialHistory,55,
117–32.
2006,‘MarxismoMetropolitanoyAmplitudAnalitcaenlahistoriadeHobs-
x acknowledgements
bawm’,inLosHistoriadoresyLaHistoriaparaelSigoxxi:HomenajeaEricJ.Hobs-
bawm,editedbyGumersindoVeraHernandezandJoséPatoja,MexicoCity:Escuela
NacionaldeAntropolígiaeHistoria,145–58.Publishedhereunderthetitle‘Hobs-
bawm’sHistory:MetropolitanMarxismandAnalyticBreadth’.
2006,‘LaspoliticasdeHobsbawm:sehadetnindolamarchahaciaadelantedel
FrentePopular’,inLosHistorioadoresyLaHistoriaparaelSigoxxi:HomenajeaEric
J.Hobsbawm,editedbyGumersindoVeraHernandezandJoséPatoja,MexicoCity:
EscuelaNacionaldeAntropolígaeHistoria,93–104.Publishedhereunderthetitle
‘Hobsbawm’sPolitics:TheForwardMarchofthePopularFrontHalted’.
2013, ‘James Patrick Cannon: Revolutionary Continuity and Class Struggle
PoliticsintheUnitedStates,1890–1974’,originallypublishedinItalianinTheOther
TwentiethCentury:HereticalCommunismandCriticalThinking,editedbyMichele
deGregorio,Milan:JacaBook.
2013,‘ParadoxandtheThompson“SchoolofAwkwardness”’,inE.P.Thompson
andEnglishRadicalism,editedbyRogerFieldhouseandRichardTaylor,Manchester:
ManchesterUniversityPress,205–28.
Description:The two volumes of Marxism and Historical Practice bring together a wide range of essays written by one of the major Marxist historians of the last fifty years. Collected in Volume II, Interventions and Appreciations, are articles and reviews capturing the breadth of Palmer’s interests as a radica