Raymond Williams at 100

Raymond Williams was by common consent one of the two most commanding intellectual figures in the New Left that emerged in Britain at the turn of the sixties, the other being Edward Thompson. Williams published in 1961 a text entitled The Future of Marxism. In that essay, Williams has some remarkable things to say about imperialism, the successes of actually existing socialism, balanced against its failures, and the continued relevance of socialism as the horizon of human liberation. He also makes a characteristic methodological point: the relation between systems of thought and actual history is both complex and surprising. The future of Marxism, that is to say, will not depend on dogma, but will instead rest on historical developments, on how well are able to actualize Marxs ideals in our own unique conjuncture. This volume takes up the challenge of reading and extending Williamss thought in light of the actual history that has occurred since his passing but with the same ideal of socialism as its guiding horizon. If there is one thread visible throughout all of Williamss work, it is the felt presence of a living, thinking individual, of a person continually testing ideas in experience in order to see whether they fit the world they are meant to describe. The aim of this volume, timed to coincide with what would have been Williamss 100th birthday, is to test his ideas in our own experience and to engage Williamss work in ways that move past the familiar terrain that has grown around it. We now know that experience is a dangerous category, that community can be hijacked by the right as much as the left, and that tradition contains as much conflict as commonality. Those committed to Williamss work can easily find textual arguments or developments across his career to answer these charges, and they have. What our volume offers is a set of arguments by younger scholars influenced by Williamss writings that moves past some of these debates, extending Williamss work into the 21st century, testing and weighing his ideas in light of recent developments and contemporary intellectual culture. In doing so, we treat Williamss thought as one of those resources of hope, which he famously suggested would sustain us. At a time of deepening inequality and austerity and growing rightward reaction, and yet simultaneously, and with seeming dialectical necessity, a renewed investment in socialism, Williams might be exactly the kind of figure we need.