I'm about ready to declare that Sidney Hook's two Marx books from 1932 & 1936 are the best example of American Marxism, & moreover some of the best works of Marxism in the 20th century, anywhere. Alas, it was all downhill for Hook after those books, & his decline was steep. #USIH
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Replying to @HartmanAndrew
Jeet Heer Retweeted Jeet Heer
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Replying to @HeerJeet @HartmanAndrew
Nah, if we are going to do the phases, Niebuhr the Marxist was more original and impressive than Hook the Marxist. Hook was just providing an account of Marx's thought, drawing upon European accounts (Lukacs, Korsch) that focused on Hegelian origins.
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Hook was arguably the best at trying to synthesize pragmatism and Marxism, but he was not alone. Max Eastman had a similar project, and William English Walling has made a stab earlier, at the turn of the century.
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Before the emergence of Leninism, American socialism was much more open to attempts to synthesize other streams with Marxism.
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Replying to @LeoECasey @HeerJeet
Don't think I agree with your assessment of Hook, but I would love to know which American socialists you think did interesting work on Marx prior to Leninism.
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Replying to @HartmanAndrew @HeerJeet
I don't think that there is much pre-Leninist American socialist thought that I would classify as interesting in the sense that one would read it today for theoretical insights; it is more of historical interest, in a history of ideas.
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Funnily enough, I'm just working on a piece about Guy Davenport's attempt to recover Fourierist utopian socialism
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