Stephen Duncombe, an Associate Professor at the Gallatin School of New York University, is the author of
Dream and Notes from Underground, editor of
The Cultural Resistance Reader, and coeditor (with Maxwell Tremblay) of
White Riot.
Theodor Adorno was director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt from 1956 until his death in 1969. His works include
In Search of Wagner;
Aesthetic Theory;
Negative Dialectics; and (with Max Horkheimer)
Dialectic of Enlightenment and
Towards a New Manifesto.
Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) began teaching sociology at the Université de Paris-X in 1966. He retired from academia in 1987 to write books and travel until his death in 2007. His many works include
Simulations and Simulacra,
America,
The Perfect Crime,
The System of Objects,
Passwords,
The Transparency of Evil,
The Spirit of Terrorism, and
Fragments, among others.
Walter Benjamin was a German-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory and is the author of
Illuminations,
The Arcades Project, and
The Origin of German Tragic Drama.Andrew Boyd is a writer and activist living in New York. He is the author of
Life's Little Deconstruction Book: Self-Help for the Post-HipBertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theater director. An influential theater practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theater company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.
Friedrich Engels was born in 1820, in the German city of Barmen. He died in London in 1895 while editing the fourth volume of Capital.
Christopher Hill was for many years tutor and then Master of Balliol College, Oxford.
A Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Eric Hobsbawm is the author of more than twenty books of history, including
The Age of Revolution and
The Age of Extremes. He lives in London.
Karl Marx studied law and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Berlin, completing his doctorate in 1841. Expelled from Prussia in 1844, he took up residence first in Paris and then in London where, in 1867, he published his magnum opus
Capital. A co-founder of the International Workingmen’s Association in 1864, Marx died in London in 1883.
Adolph Reed is a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. He is author of
Class Notes,
The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon,
W. E. B. DuBois and American Political Thought, and
Stirrings in the Jug. He has written articles for the
Progressive,
Black Agenda and many other publications. Politically active since the 1960s, he brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the debates around Barack Obama, and wider issues concerning both black and progressive politics.
Raymond Williams (1921–1988) was for many years Professor of Drama at the University of Cambridge. Among his many books are
Culture and Society,
Culture and Materialism, Politics and Letters,
Problems in Materialism and Culture, and several novels.
