Black Power and the New Left: The Dialectics of Liberation, 1967

One might be surprised to find out that Stokely Carmichael and Herbert Marcuse spoke at the same conference in 1967. One might be more surprised to learn that both of their talks revolved around the animation of Frederick Douglass’s act of revolt as a figural point on which their disparate political projects hinged. A potential path not taken in forging an alliance between 60s Black radicalism and the Western Marxism of its time? Perhaps. But perhaps also a shared philosophical mistake.