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5.0 out of 5 stars
The cornerstone for any serious investigation of Western racism, February 26, 2008
This review is from: Race: A Study in Social Dynamics (Paperback)
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, mostly because his Marxism told him to expect a working-class coalition of Whites and Blacks, led by Whites. (Cox, perhaps not unreasonably, couldn't imagine a non-violent Black movement alone successfully taking on the powerful, violent Southern segregationist power structure.) But of course he was wrong, though even Martin Luther King needed Lyndon Johnson and the federal justice system to (at last) rally to his side to succeed.
Which book to purchase, "Race" or "Caste, Class and Race"? I'd recommend buying the original, complete text, and skipping only the 'Caste' section. (Unless you're interested in what's undoubtedly one of the best DETAILED explorations of the Indian caste system ever published.) Or just splurge and buy both--"Race" has a good intro by journalist/academic Adolph Reed, Jr., and a helpful biographical essay on Cox as well. If you do choose "Caste, Class and Race," the best available edition (all are sadly out-of-print/used) is the 1959 Monthly Review hardback, since the 1970 paperback is a bit too compact yet thick for its own good--kind of unwieldy, a bit like trying to read a brick.
But anyway--read it. It's one of the few really essential American books.
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