In Karl Marx in America, historian Andrew Hartman argues that even though Karl Marx never visited America, the country has been infused, shaped, and transformed by him. Since the beginning of the Civil War, Marx has been a specter in the American machine. During the Gilded Age, socialists read Marx as an antidote to the unchecked power of corporations. In the Great Depression, communists turned to Marx in hopes of transcending the destructive capitalist economy. The young activists of the 1960s were inspired by Marx as they gathered to protest an overseas war. Marx’s influence today is evident, too, as Americans have become increasingly attuned to issues of inequality, labor, and power. 

Join the Seminar in Contemporary Marxism for the launch of Karl Marx in America, and a discussion about how after decades of being pushed to the far-left corner of intellectual thought, Marx’s ideologies have crossed over into the mainstream and are more alive than ever. 


This is a hybrid event taking place at King's College London, Safra Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, WC2R 2LS:https://www.tickettailor.com/events/seminarincontemporarymarxisttheory/1597708

For Zoom, register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8uWKlFE_Qg6m0ujfVot8iw#/registration

SPEAKER

Andrew Hartman is professor of history at Illinois State University. He is the author of A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, published by the University of Chicago Press, and Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School. He is also the coeditor of American Labyrinth: Intellectual History for Complicated Times.