ABSTRACT
American Marxism has had a curious history; in a sense, it has not so much had a history as a series of aborted births. Popular Front liberalism has by no means been merely a product of the political exigencies of the 1930s; it has deep roots in the history of the American working class. Perhaps the strongest indication of the power of Marxian analysis, even its more vulgar forms, has been the extent to which class analysis has intruded itself into American history despite the contempt poured out on 'Marxian economic determinism'. The Marxian interpretation of history contains an undeniable ambiguity, which creates a dangerous tendency toward economic determinism – that vulgar and useless historical dogma. On a more general level the distinction between 'objective' and 'subjective' forces in history, which so persistently fascinates dogmatic Marxists, ends by making a mockery of dialectical analysis.
