ABSTRACT
In the United States and Canada, Marxism was beyond the limits of academic respectability until at least the mid-1960's. Marxism entered the mainstream of North American social science about 1968 as New Left Marxism. Consequently this chapter begins not at the beginning of Marxism but at the point when people began to notice this new phenomenon. The New Left generational experience of the 1960's was not Marxist; it was left liberal. The esssential difference between New Left Marxism and the Orthodox Marxisms is that the New Leiters treat Marx's writings as suggestive theories, guides to thinking and method, models to imitate, rather than as revealed truth. Also they combine Marx's long-run models with various short-run models, some adapted from recent social science and some newly devised. New Left Marxism provides yet another perspective on imperialism, conceiving it as a regionally organized system of labor exploitation.
