Cultural Resistance Reader
Stephen Duncombe, an Associate Professor at the Gallatin School of New York University, is the author ofDreamandNotes from Underground, editor of theCultural Resistance Reader, and coeditor (with Maxwell Tremblay) ofWhite Riot.Theodor Adornowas director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt from 1956 until his death in 1969. His works includeIn Search of Wagner;Aesthetic Theory;Negative Dialectics; and (with Max Horkheimer)Dialectic of EnlightenmentandTowards a New Manifesto.Jean Baudrillard(1929–2007) began teaching sociology at the Université de Paris-X in 1966. He retired from academia in 1987 to write books and travel until his death in 2007. His many works includeSimulations and Simulacra,America,The Perfect Crime,The System of Objects,Passwords,The Transparency of Evil,The Spirit of Terrorism, andFragments, among others.Walter Benjaminwas a German-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory and is the author ofIlluminations,The Arcades Project, andThe Origin of German Tragic Drama.Andrew Boydis a writer and activist living in New York. He is the author ofLife’s Little Deconstruction Book: Self-Help for the Post-HipBertolt Brecht(1898–1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theater director. An influential theater practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theater company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.Frederick Engelswas born in 1820, in the German city of Barmen. Brought up as a devout Calvinist he moved to England in 1842 to work in his father’s Manchester textile firm. After joining the fight against the counter revolution in Germany in 1848 he returned to Manchester and the family business, finally settling there in 1850. In subsequent years he provided financial support for Marx and edited the second and third volumes ofCapital. He died whilst working on the fourth volume in 1895.Christopher Hill(1912–2003) was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and later became Master of the college. His celebrated and influential works includeIntellectual Origins of the English Revolution,The World Turned Upside DownandA Turbulent, Seditious and Fractious People: John Bunyan and His Church.A Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,Eric Hobsbawmis the author of more than twenty books of history, includingThe Age of RevolutionandThe Age of Extremes. He lives in London.Robin D.G. Kelleyis Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and History at the University of South California.George Lipsitzis Professor of Black Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author ofMidnight: Life and Labor in the 1940s,Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture,The Sidewalks of St LouisandA Life in Struggle: Ivor Perry and the Culture of Opposition, which was the winner of the Eugene M. Kayden Press Book Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Race Relations.Karl Marxwas born in 1818, in the Rhenish city of Trier, the son of a successful lawyer. He studied law and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Berlin, completing his doctorate in 1841. In Paris three years later, Marx was introduced to the study of political economy by a former fellow student, Frederick Engels. In 1848 they collaborated in writingThe Communist Manifesto. Expelled from Prussia in the same year, Marx took up residence first in Paris and then in London where, in 1867 he published his magnum opusCapital. A co-founder of the International Workingmen’s Association in 1864, Marx died in London in 1883.Adolph L. Reed, Jr.is a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. He is author ofClass Notes,The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon,W. E. B. DuBois and American Political Thought, andStirrings in the Jug. He has written articles for theProgressive,Black Agendaand many other publications. Politically active since the 1960s, he brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the debates around Barack Obama, and wider issues concerning both black and progressive politics.Raymond Williams(1921–1988) was for many years Professor of Drama at the University of Cambridge. Among his many books areCulture and Society,Culture and Materialism, Politics and Letters,Problems in Materialism and Culture, and several novels.