Abstract

Mainstream social scientists and historians argue that because Marx's prediction of socialism's triumph over capitalism failed, and because class consciousness and class conflict have been comparatively weak in the United States, Marx's class theory is largely irrelevant to understanding American politics and society. U.S. history in the 1930s, however, reveals that class conflict has been as central in the United States as in other industrial capitalist societies. Before a fully developed Marxist theory of America can be developed, the importance of class must first be established. Choosing the 1930s loads the dice in favor of class, but in fact, while the class struggle varies in overtness and intensity in different historical periods (as Marx knew full well), class and class conflict are crucial to understanding every period of American history. In any case, a theory that denies the importance of class cannot explain such a significant era as the 1930s, which in itself calls into question claims that Marx has little to offer students of the United States.