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Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket

C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary

Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket

The C. L. R. James Archives

More about this series

Read the Introduction
Book Pages: 304 Illustrations: Published: October 2018

Editor(s): David Featherstone, Christopher Gair, Christian Høgsbjerg, Andrew Smith

Contributor(s): Anima Adjepong, David Austin, Hilary McD Beckles, Michael Brearley, Selwyn Cudjoe, Paget Henry, C. L. R. James, Minkah Makalani, Selma James, Clem Seecharan, Roy McCree, Claire Westall, Neil Washbourne

Subjects
Caribbean Studies, Postcolonial and Colonial Studies, Theory and Philosophy > Marxism

Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential sports books of all time, C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary is—among other things—a pioneering study of popular culture, an analysis of resistance to empire and racism, and a personal reflection on the history of colonialism and its effects in the Caribbean. More than fifty years after the publication of James's classic text, the contributors to Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket investigate Beyond a Boundary's production and reception and its implication for debates about sports, gender, aesthetics, race, popular culture, politics, imperialism, and English and Caribbean identity. Including a previously unseen first draft of Beyond a Boundary's conclusion alongside contributions from James's key collaborator Selma James and from Michael Brearley, former captain of the English Test cricket team, Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket provides a thorough and nuanced examination of James's groundbreaking work and its lasting impact.

Contributors. Anima Adjepong, David Austin, Hilary McD. Beckles, Michael Brearley, Selwyn R. Cudjoe, David Featherstone, Christopher Gair, Paget Henry, Christian Høgsbjerg, C. L. R. James, Selma James, Roy McCree, Minkah Makalani, Clem Seecharan, Andrew Smith, Neil Washbourne, Claire Westall

Praise

"Impressively, the authors are respectful of James’ pivotal contribution to the Marxist analysis of sport but also explore aspects of his thought that fall short of a fully comprehensive materialist approach." — Sean Ledwith, Marx and Philosophy

"A fine and comprehensive attempt to reflect on the work of James . . . Represents the fluency of much of James’s writing and oratory as a charismatic speaker and public intellectual who sought to place himself at the forefront of public discussion. . . . Many will glean much pleasure and stimulation from a study of this text." — Russell Holden, Nordic Sports Forum

“Few books of the twentieth century inhabit the core of life and carry such human insight as C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary, certainly not with sport as their subject. Marxism, Colonialism and Cricket brings together a series of new reflective essays on James's epochal book by writers of the Caribbean, America, and the United Kingdom—from England's greatest cricket captain to a cricket-loving vice-chancellor at the University of the West Indies. Half a century after its first publication, Beyond a Boundary still creates profound depths of response and entirely fresh critical understanding.” — Chris Searle, author of Pitch of Life: Writings on Cricket


“With the publication of Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket we finally have a critical volume dedicated to C. L. R. James's seminal text worthy of the original. The stellar lineup of contributors is as broad and impressive as Beyond a Boundary itself. Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket will quickly become required reading for those not just interested in the intellectual and political life of C. L. R. James but, as importantly, in how we make sense of the contested political terrain of popular culture and sports in the twenty-first century.” — Ben Carrington, author of Race, Sport, and Politics: The Sporting Black Diaspora


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Author/Editor Bios Back to Top

David Featherstone is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Glasgow.

Christopher Gair is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow.

Christian Høgsbjerg is Lecturer in Critical History and Politics at the University of Brighton.

Andrew Smith is Reader in Sociology at the University of Glasgow.

Table of Contents Back to Top
Foreword. Opening Up / David Featherstone, Christopher Gair, Christian Høgsbjerg, and Andrew Smith  vii
Introduction. Beyond a Boundary at Fifty / David Featherstone, Christopher Gair, Christian Høgsbjerg, and Andrew Smith  1
Part I: Cricket, Empire, and the Caribbean
1. C. L. R. James: Plumbing His Caribbean Roots / Selwyn R. Cudjoe  35
2. C. L. R. James's "British Civilization"? Exploring the "Dark Unfathomed Caves" of Beyond a Boundary / Christian Høgsbjerg  51
3. The Boundaries of Publication: The Making of Beyond a Boundary / Roy McCree 72
4. "West Indian Through and Through, and Very British": C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary, Coloniality, and Theorizing Caribbean Independence / Minkah Makalani  88
5. Looking Beyond the Boundary, or Bondmen without the Bat: Modernism and Culture in the Worldview of C. L. R. James / David Austin  103
Part II. The Politics of Representation in Beyond a Boundary
6. "Periodically I Pondered over It": Reading he Absence/Presence of Women in Beyond a Boundary / Anima Adjepong  123
7. C. L. R. James, W. G. Grace, and the Representative Claim / Neil Washbourne  137
8. Shannonism: Learie Constantine and the Origins of C. L. R. James's Worrell Captaincy Campaign of 1959–60: A Preliminary Assessment / Clem Seecharan  153
Part III: Art, History, and Culture in C. L. R. James
9. C. L. R. James and the Arts of Beyond a Boundary: Literary Lessons, Cricketing Aesthetics, and World-Historical Heroes / Claire Westall  173
10. The Very Stuff of Human Life: C. L. R. James on Cricket, History, and Human Nature / Andrew Smith  191
11. C. L. R. James: Beyond the Boundaries of Culture / Paget Henry  204
Part IV: Reflections
12. Socrates and C. L. R. James / Michael Brearley  223
13. My Journey to James: Cricket, Caribbean Identity, and Cricket Writing / Hilary McD. Beckles  240
14. Confronting Imperial Boundaries / Selma James  254
Appendix. What Do They Know of England? / C. L. R. James  263
References  276
Contributors  283
Index  287
Sales/Territorial Rights: World

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Additional InformationBack to Top
Paper ISBN: 978-1-4780-0147-8 / Cloth ISBN: 978-1-4780-0112-6
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