No Politics But Class Politics - by Adolph Reed & Walter Benn Michaels (Paperback)

About the Book

This book argues against the establishment of a demographically representative social elite, and for economic justice for everyone.

Book Synopsis

Denouncing racism and celebrating diversity have become central to progressive politics. For many on the left, it seems, social justice would consist of an equitable distribution of wealth, power and esteem among racial groups. But as Adolph Reed Jr. and Walter Benn Michaels argue in this incisive collection of essays, the emphasis here is tragically misplaced. Not only can a fixation with racial disparities distract from the pervasive influence of class, it can actually end up legitimising economic inequality. As Reed and Michaels put it, "racism is real and anti-racism is both admirable and necessary, but extant racism isn't what principally produces our inequality and anti-racism won't eliminate it".

No Politics but Class Politics gathers together Reed and Michaels's recent essays on inequality, along with a newly commissioned interview with the authors and an illuminating foreword by Daniel Zamora and Anton Jäger. These writings eschew the sloppy thinking and moral posturing that too often characterise discussions of race and class in favour of clear-eyed social, cultural and historical analysis. Reed and Michaels make the case here for a genuinely radical politics: a politics which aspires not to the establishment of a demographically representative social elite, but instead to economic justice for everyone.

Review Quotes

Still, is it accurate to call this collection "groundbreaking," as claimed in the blurb on the back of the book? Can publishing essays spanning from 1997 to 2020 be considered a timely project in 2023? On both counts, I think the answer is yes. . . No Politics But Class Politics is essential reading for academics, students, politicians, activists, and everyone who is concerned with the most pressing social pathologies of our time, that is, those produced by the capitalist system.--Anna Romanowicz "H-Socialism"

For Michaels and Reed, American history is a history of class conflict in which race emerges as an ideology that mystifies the terms of that conflict to the benefit of capital and to the detriment of the poor; and so--both historically and currently--there are no politics other than class politics.--Anthony Shoplik, Loyola University Chicago "Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association"

To their great credit, Marxist scholar Adolph Reed and literary theorist Walter Benn Michaels have been beating this drum since long before anyone cared to listen.--Sohale Mortazavi "Quillette"

An indispensable exposé of anti-racism as a crucial legitimating ideology for neoliberalism. The collection is a must for activists and scholar/activists.--John Arena, College of Staten Island, CUNY "Sociology of Race and Ethnicity"

No Politics but Class Politics is blunt, biting, and provocative. It has to be.--Paul Prescod "Catalyst"

No Politics but Class Politics offers a bracing antidote to the fantasy that 'diversity and inclusion' can ever constitute a meaningful left politics. [...] This book is the indispensable primer for a truly progressive politics.--James Oakes

[Walter Benn Michaels is] cunning, brilliant, acutely suggestive, often exhilarating to read.--Eric Lott "Transition"

A significant new book--Richard D. Kahlenberg "The Liberal Patriot"

Adolph Reed Jr. is the smartest person of any race, class, or gender writing on race, class, and gender.--Katha Pollitt "Mother Jones"

Adolph Reed Jr. is the towering radical theorist of American democracy of his generation!--Cornel West

Adolph Reed, Jr. and Walter Benn Michaels have been among the clearest voices critiquing the dominant race reductionism in American intellectual life and proposing a real egalitarian alternative.--Bhaskar Sunkara

Anyone interested in the politics of race and class must push aside the dogma of identity and grapple with what Reed, Jr. and Michaels have been arguing for decades.--Jodi Dean

For decades, Adolph Reed and Walter Benn Michaels have brought common as well as uncommon sense to the analysis of politics under oligarchic late capitalism.--Barbara J. Fields

Reed, Jr. and Michaels take a hammer to common ways of thinking about race, class, inequality and identity, revealing ugly truths, and challenging us out of our comfort zones.--Kenan Malik

The fifteen essays collected in the book offer a stark rejoinder to what at times feels like a futile cultural impasse that ultimately amounts to a lot of hand wringing.--Adam Theron-Lee Rensch "The Brooklyn Rail"

These essays tell the story of the last seven decades, charting the decline of the left and American politics. The result is as rich as it is rare: a long view that is pressing and immediate.--Corey Robin

Wokelords and anti-racist liberals will be frustrated, enraged, and defeated. This book pushes us closer towards the uncompromising, bare-knuckled anti-capitalist movement we so desperately need.--Cedric Johnson

About the Author

Walter Benn Michaels is Professor of English at the University of Illinois Chicago. An influential scholar in the fields of literary theory and American literary history, Michaels is also a high-profile polemicist whose political writings have appeared in publications including The American Prospect and the London Review of Books. His most recent books are The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality and The Beauty of a Social Problem: Photography, Autonomy, Economy.

Adolph Reed Jr. is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. A veteran activist and a prolific analyst of the politics of race and class, his books include The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon: The Crisis of Purpose in Afro-American Politics, Stirrings in the Jug: Black Politics in the Post-Segregation Era and Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene. His essays have appeared in The Nation, Harpers and Jacobin, among other publications.