Few figures have inspired as much admiration and detestation—and even fewer have had as global a reception—as Karl Marx. Since the publication of his work, movements for emancipation from the shackles of imperialism and economic domination have embraced Marxist ideals as alternatives to the totalizing logics of capitalism and liberalism that had (and has) kept the majority of the world’s population in chains, both literally and metaphorically. Marx’s writings do not offer a prescription for communism or a theory of revolution, but rather what Charles Mills calls a “social ontology of modernity,” that is, a way of understanding social relations and antagonisms under global capitalism. It is no wonder, then, that Marx’s work has had such lasting influence across the humanities and social sciences. Today, a study of Marx’s core insight—that the contradictions inherent in capitalism will lead to its (and perhaps our) eventual demise—remains critical if we are to interrogate the resurgence of white supremacist fascism, the logics of neocolonial exploitation, and the origins of the looming climate catastrophes that define our present.
- Teacher: Sabeen Ahmed