Andrew Hartman, "Karl Marx in America" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

Jul 5, 2025

In this conversation, Andrew Hartman, a history professor and author of "Karl Marx in America," explores the surprising influence of Marx's ideas on American society. He discusses how Marx's thoughts resonate from the Civil War to today, tracing their impact on labor movements and responses to inequality. Hartman highlights Marx’s unexpected connections with figures like Abraham Lincoln and assesses his relevance amid modern grassroots movements. The podcast delves into the complexities of Marxism’s journey from fringe to mainstream in contemporary America.

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INSIGHT

Marx's Enduring US Influence

Karl Marx, though never visiting America, profoundly influenced its intellectual and political history since the Civil War.
His ideas fueled various movements reacting to capitalism's power and inequality in the US.

INSIGHT

Marx's View of American Democracy

Marx saw America as a unique experiment with democracy and capitalism, especially notable because of its anti-slavery struggle.
He grew optimistic that the US working class could bring socialism through democracy, especially during the Civil War.

INSIGHT

Slavery's Impact on Working Class Unity

Marx opposed slavery morally and strategically, seeing it as a divisive factor that hindered working-class solidarity.
He believed abolition would strengthen working-class power globally.

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Karl Marx in America (University of Chicago Press, 2025), by Andrew Hartman

To read Karl Marx is to contemplate a world created by capitalism. People have long viewed the United States as the quintessential anti-Marxist nation, but Marx’s ideas have inspired a wide range of people to formulate a more precise sense of the stakes of the American project. Historians have highlighted the imprint made on the United States by Enlightenment thinkers such as Adam Smith, John Locke, and Thomas Paine, but Marx is rarely considered alongside these figures. Yet his ideas are the most relevant today because of capitalism’s centrality to American life.
In historian Andrew Hartman argues that even though Karl Marx never visited America, the country has been infused, shaped, and transformed by him. Since the beginning of the Civil War, Marx has been a specter in the American machine. During the Gilded Age, socialists read Marx as an antidote to the unchecked power of corporations. In the Great Depression, communists turned to Marx in hopes of transcending the destructive capitalist economy. The young activists of the 1960s were inspired by Marx as they gathered to protest an overseas war. Marx’s influence today is evident, too, as Americans have become increasingly attuned to issues of inequality, labor, and power.
After decades of being pushed to the far-left corner of intellectual thought, Marx’s ideologies have crossed over into the mainstream and are more alive than ever. Working-class consciousness is on the rise, and, as Marx argued, the future of a capitalist society rests in the hands of the people who work at the point of production. A valuable resource for anyone interested in Marx’s influence on American political discourse, Karl Marx in America is a thought-provoking account of the past, present, and future of his philosophies in American society.

Andrew Hartman is professor of history at Illinois State University. He is the author of A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, published by the University of Chicago Press, and Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School. He is also the coeditor of American Labyrinth: Intellectual History for Complicated Times.

Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature.

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/a48266/videos

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