ABSTRACT
In the 1960s, after the cold war had induced a long bout of paranoia, retreat and reaction into large sections of the Old Left, the New Left discovered a remarkably sustained optimism of both will and intellect. Its new constituencies of students, blacks and women were mobilised around an unfolding and unheard of agenda of civil rights agitation, anti-war protest, democracy in education and equality for women. 'In modern society', writes Diggins, 'in a predominantly service economy run by computers and supported by data banks, men and women no longer work upon things to produce products. Access to knowledge and its transmission renders the "mode of information" the crucial institution of postindustrial society'. Fredric Jameson's studies on postmodernism share the tones and themes of postwar social theory. Two connected issues - the legacies of Western Marxism and the 1960s in America - help further situate Jameson's thinking.
