Marx and Marxism in the United States: A One-Day Symposium

Conference summary

Does the spectre of Marx haunt American Studies?  Marxist ideas and practices, though vilified and contested, have also been enduring, exuberant, and influential in the history and culture of the United States. Whether in social movements or in literary, intellectual, and cultural life, Marx and Marxism have surfaced repeatedly in American life. An “end of ideology” is followed by the “end of socialism,” for example, without inhibiting new spurts of new interest in Marxism, most recently amongst youth following the 2008 financial crisis and Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign.