Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain: History, the New Left, and the Origins of Cultural Studies (Post-Contemporary Interventions)

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Webster, Frank (2004). "Cultural Studies and Sociology at, and After, the Closure of the Birmingham School". Cultural Studies. 18 (6): 848. doi: 10.1080/0950238042000306891. S2CID 145110580. It is not clear to me whether Lind and others on the culturally conservative Right invented the term “cultural Marxism” independently, or whether they co-opted the earlier usage of scholars such as Schroyer. I find it difficult to believe that they were entirely unaware of Schroyer’s relatively well-known work; however, I am not aware of any of their writings in which they specifically cite The Critique of Domination (if readers know of any, I’d welcome the information). This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. ( December 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) T]he first comprehensive history of British cultural Marxism conceived as a coherent intellectual tradition. . . . Dworkin writes in a readable and accessible style, providing an excellent guide to those unfamiliar with the byzantine complexities of the postwar British Left.” — Martin Francis , Journal of Modern History

Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain: History, the New Left Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain: History, the New Left

The strengths of Dworkin’s study are legion. He offers an excellent account of the break made by a number of intellectuals with the Communist Party of Great Britain. . . . Moreover, although an ardent enthusiast for the work of the cultural Marxists, Dworkin is not afraid to be critical of that work. . . . But most of all, Dworkin has written an important study insofar as it charts the evolution of a major strand of thought in postwar Britain and does so in part by making excellent use of unpublished papers and various interviews that the author undertook for the study.” — Chris Waters , American Historical Review

In this Book

Unfortunate cultural tendencies, including those that manifest a left-wing style of authoritarianism, can usually be labelled in less confusing, more effective, more precise ways. By all means, let’s develop useful terminology to express whatever concerns we have about tendencies on the Left, but “cultural Marxism” carries too much baggage. Ioan Davies. “British Cultural Marxism.” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 4(3) (1991): 323-344. Resistance through rituals: youth subcultures in post-war Britain. Hall, Stuart, 1932-2014., Jefferson, Tony. (2nd., rev. and expandeded.). London: Routledge. 2006. ISBN 978-0415324373. OCLC 70106758. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: others ( link)

Cultural Marxism and our current culture wars: Part 2 Cultural Marxism and our current culture wars: Part 2

Outside of historical scholarship, and discussions of the history and current state of Western Marxism, we need to be careful. In everyday contexts, those of us who do not accept the narrative of a grand, semi-conspiratorial movement aimed at producing moral degeneracy should probably avoid using the term “cultural Marxism”.Dworkin, Dennis (1 June 2012). Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain. Duke University Press. p.116. doi: 10.1215/9780822396512. ISBN 9780822396512. Nonetheless, there is at least a minimal commonality between the work of Marxist scholars such as Schroyer and the theories of right-wing culture warriors. To some extent they were focusing on the same tendencies in Western Marxism. Thus, there is a grain of truth even in Breivik’s conspiracy theorizing, and I wonder whether this might explain the hostility to including an article on “cultural Marxism” in Wikipedia. The same scholarship that supports Schroyer’s analysis, for example, gives a degree of superficial credibility to the likes of Lind, Buchanan, or Breivik. During that decade, Institute scholars were forced out of Germany (initially to Geneva and then to the United States) by the rise of the Nazi Party. After the end of World War II, however, a number of them returned to Europe. Adorno and Horkheimer, whose major publications were perhaps the most crucial contributions to the Institute’s program of social and cultural critique, returned to Frankfurt in 1949. Shulman, Norma (1993). "Conditions of their Own Making: An Intellectual History of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham". Canadian Journal of Communication. 18 (1). Schroyer was, and is, a genuine scholar presenting a thesis that was received and reviewed seriously. He seems generally correct in his description of Western Marxism’s departure from Soviet Marxism, with an emphasis on cultural critique and a different set of attitudes to culture itself. More specifically, the unmasking of culture as complicit in social domination of the individual was a central idea within the intellectual ambitions of the Frankfurt School. Similar ideas of unmasking and criticizing the role of culture can be observed more broadly within Western Marxism - and in what we might call “Western post-Marxism” - from at least the 1920s to the present day.

Cultural Marxism in Post War Britain: History, the New Left Cultural Marxism in Post War Britain: History, the New Left

In this intellectual history of British cultural Marxism, Dennis Dworkin explores one of the most influential bodies of contemporary thought. Tracing its development from beginnings in postwar Britain, through its various transformations in the 1960s and 1970s, to the emergence of British cultural studies at Birmingham, and up to the advent of Thatcherism, Dworkin shows this history to be one of a coherent intellectual tradition, a tradition that represents an implicit and explicit theoretical effort to resolve the crisis of the postwar British Left. Group Mind theory says that what happens at the conscious level is determined by what takes place at the subconscious group mind level. Britons were convinced they were involved in a participative humanitarian endeavour when in reality they had been subjected to a manipulative grooming process via ingenious propaganda techniques. Nearly all of the intellectual and artistic movements of the 20th century were inspired by thinkers who were financed by central bankers - some of them worked for Soviet Intelligence. Current left-wing activism can, indeed, display hyperbolic, philistine, and authoritarian tendencies, but these have little to do with any influence from Marx, Soviet totalitarianism, or the work of the Frankfurt School. They have more, I suspect, to do with tendencies toward moral and political purity in almost any movement that seeks social change.Dennis Dworkin provides a careful and relatively comprehensive assessment of cultural Marxism’s emergence as a postwar British intellectual and political project, which developed around both history-writing and what came to be called cultural studies.” — Dan Schiller, Left History The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies ( CCCS) was a research centre at the University of Birmingham, England. It was founded in 1964 by Stuart Hall and Richard Hoggart, its first director. [1] [2] From 1964 to 2002, it played a critical role in developing the field of cultural studies. [3] History [ edit ] In that historical and social context, the modern academic discipline of cultural studies emerged within the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham (hence the common references to a “Birmingham School” of cultural critique). Here, Raymond Williams became a leading figure, drawing on both Marxist theory and established forms of British literary criticism, especially that of F.R. and Q.D. Leavis (Davies, “British Cultural Marxism”, p. 329).