Race: A Study in Social Dynamics

by Oliver C. Cox and Oliver Cromwell Cox

Book Overview

"I welcome this new edition of Oliver Cromwell Cox's brilliant work. Published amid Cold War repression and postwar racist violence, and kept in print by Monthly Review Press since, it is as fresh and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583670068
• ISBN13: 9781583670064
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Monthly Review Press
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The cornerstone for any serious investigation of Western racism

Sixty years after publication, Cox's "Caste, Class and Race" remains the single most important book ever published on American racism. Cox is just a brilliant thinker and writer--both--and in "Caste, Class and Race" he lucidly lays out a materialist interpretation of modern racial formation that, I think, gets it right on all the fundamentals. This is the analysis of racism that today dominates the best scholarly/activist thought in the U.S.--see, for example, Stephen Steinberg's 2008 "Race Relations: A critique," which in part discusses Cox's career. Cox got it right first--at least a couple of decades ahead of anybody else! And to this day, nobody has done this critically important analytical work better. Note that "Caste, Class and Race" is not the current title offered for sale. That's because "Race" is actually only exactly that: 'Race,' the third section of the original volume, published on its own. Yes, the first two-thirds of the original book is missing here! That's a very mixed blessing. First, the good part, and the rationale for carving out 'Race' as a stand-alone: Cox designed the original three-part scheme to take on and discredit the then-reigning 'caste' theory of racism, today a pretty irrelevant task, since Cox was right and all those then-prominent-now-forgotten Ivy League academics were wildly wrong. (Their basic notion was that the U.S. racial order runs largely parallel to India's caste system--a ludicrous idea attractive mainly because it let the White establishment turn away from the reality of homegrown racist oppression and exploitation.) But the 'Class' section, also omitted from this edition, is really CCR's foundation. In it Cox lays out his somewhat idiosyncratic "Marxian"--not, as he points out, doctrinaire "Marxist"--materialist analysis of modern Western historical development, cogently presented in its own right. That framework then forms the basis for the third section's masterly analysis of Western racism, growing out of the inherent dynamics of industrial capitalism and imperialism--in the U.S., out of slavery in particular, of course. By the way if, perhaps, you're put off by the idea of a Marxian orientation--do get over it! Approach Cox with an open mind, and you'll soon appreciate that the hallmark of his writing is its logical rigor, its intellectual thoroughness and, not infrequently, brilliance. Occasionally while reading I'd think, "Ah, now (finally!) here's a paragraph that just doesn't add up," or, "He's chosen the wrong word this time--he means..." And then I'd read the passage again, sometimes again and again--and then, click, I'd get it. Cox hadn't been wrong--he'd just been thinking a couple (or more) steps ahead of me. Once or twice in these moments of recognition I felt my head turn right around--paradigm shift! Cox does, granted, get it wrong once or twice, mainly when he tries to foretell the future. In particular, Cox didn't see a non-violent, Black-led civil rights movement coming,

A unique perspective

Cox's work is somewhat provocative as he seems to ignore the psycho dynamics of racism and stands by the causal factors of racism's matrix is in the economic stucturation of society. Whether one concurs or not, Cox is nothing less than genius. Its tragic that his books are so expensive. Another one of his most insightful works is 'Capitalism and American Leadership'. Both books are excellent reads.