Author John McClendon has written first ever book-length study of CLR James's Notes on Dialectics. This text opens and simultaneously closes the book on James's Notes through an erudite and expansive look at the political, social, and cultural context in which James conducted an unprecedented investigation of Marxism.



John H. McClendon III's CLR James's Notes on Dialectics: Left Hegelianism or Marxism-Leninism? is the first-ever book devoted exclusively to James's "magnum opus," Notes on Dialectics: Hegel-Marx-Lenin. The seed for this study was planted over thirty years ago when James handed the author his personal copy of Notes. James's contribution to dialectical philosophy and his vast intellectual and scholarly output is rivalled only by the seemingly bottomless depths of McClendon's own analysis and erudition. McClendon provides a thorough-going critique of James's exploration into the dialectic of Hegel, Marx, and Lenin while challenging all the seminal texts on James's Notes'. A book of this magnitude is rare. This is ever more the truth when it is focused on a giant like James who stands at the nexus of so many disciplines: philosophy, history, sociology, Caribbean studies, cultural studies, African, and African American studies. CLR James's Notes on Dialectics: Left Hegelianism or Marxism-Leninism? is a must read for anyone concerned with how revolutionary theory is a guide to contemporary struggles.