{"product_id":"ragged-revolutionaries","title":"Ragged Revolutionaries","description":"In Marxism, the concept of the lumpenproletariat refers to the masses in rags, outsiders on the edge of society, drifters and criminals, of little or no use politically. But in \u003cem\u003eRagged Revolutionaries\u003c\/em\u003e, Nathaniel Mills argues that the lumpenproletariat was central to an overlooked yet vibrant mode of African American Marxism formulated during the Great Depression by black writers on the Communist left.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy analyzing multiple published and unpublished works from the period, Mills shows how Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Margaret Walker used the lumpenproletariat to imagine new forms of revolutionary knowledge and agency. In their writings, hobos riding the rails, criminals hustling to make ends meet, heroic black folk- outlaws, and individuals who fall out of the proletariat into the social margins all furnish material for thinking through resistance to the exploitations of capitalism, patriarchy, and Jim Crow. \u003cem\u003eRagged Revolutionaries\u003c\/em\u003e introduces the lumpenproletariat into literary study, offers a new account of the place of Marxism in African American literature and politics, and clarifies the political and aesthetic commitments of three major modern black writers.","brand":"University of Massachusetts Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55316887994712,"sku":"9781625342799","price":31.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781625342799_0a889e7f-e2e9-4079-ae97-522809e5665e.jpg?v=1777121137","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/ragged-revolutionaries","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}