ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book charts the contribution of Marxism to the great tradition of British Cultural Studies. The origins of Marxist Cultural Studies in Britain coincide with the introduction of Marxism into the British Labour Movement. As soon as Marxism became a recognizable trend in British life in the early 1880s, a small number of writers began to use what they tended to call the 'materialist conception of history' to address cultural issues. Many historians insist that communist theory was of little relevance to the development of Cultural Studies in Britain. Indeed, they argue that the 'founding fathers' of Cultural Studies went out of their way to distance themselves from communist orthodoxy. The standing of Marxism among scholars was also undermined by the belief that Western societies were entering a new and highly unstable phase of their cultural evolution.
