C. L. R. James (1901–1989)

In late 1949, the West Indian intellectual C L R James sat down in his residence in Compton, California and, in a burst of creative energy, composed what turned out to be a frightfully prophetic analysis of the historical fate of democracy in the United States. Titled ‘Notes on American Civilization’, the piece was a thick prospectus for a slim book (never started) in which James promised to show how the failed historical promise of its unbridled liberalism had prepared the contemporary republic for a variant of totalitarian rule. ‘I trace as carefully as I can the forces making for totalitarianism in modern American life,’ explained the then little-known radical. ‘I relate them very carefully to the degradation of human personality under Hitler and under Stalin.’ (**Seems to be a great opening. I have yet to read the book).… (more)

I’m too tired to do this book justice, for which I apologise. Briefly, I’d only come across references to the Haitian Revolution before in histories of the French Revolution. The two were closely entwined, however the importance of the Haitian Revolution is often overlooked as it was a revolution led by black slaves against their colonial oppressors: the French. It’s a great deal more complicated than that, however as the book closes an army of former slaves has defeated Napoleon’s army, the best in the world at that time, and won independence for Haiti. It’s a fascinating and complex story, which James elucidates without oversimplifying. It’s also moving and horrifying, as Haiti’s victory was achieved at the cost of devastation and thousands of deaths. James’ Marxist analysis considers it both a class- and race-based conflict and states that the two cannot be examined separately. He also links this revolution of late 18th to early 19th century to resistance against colonisation in the 20th century. ‘The Black Jacobins’ was written in 1938 and includes an appendix written later (in the 1960s I think), which compares Fidel Castro with the extraordinary leader of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint L’Ouverture. James spends some time explaining the strengths and weaknesses, the many successes, and the few but critical failures of this incredible former slave. He consistently tried to negotiate rather than making war, but was constantly frustrated in this by the utter perfidy of the white forces, be they British, French, or Spanish. All three underestimated anyone not white and Toussiant L’Ouverture in particular. They were to learn their lesson, but not until decades had passes and thousands perished needlessly. James tells the story with nuance and sympathy, laying bare the evil of the slave trade and the scars it has left on Haiti, which remain to this day. James has an inspiring and invigorating writing style and this book has aged very well. An excellent introduction to a too-often forgotten revolution.… (more)

What we have here is a magnificent alternative history; not in the typical sense of the word but rather in the way that James presents his version of the event of the Haitian revolution. Originally written at the almost inconceivably early date of 1938, James gains everything from his distance from what we now consider to be the norms of historiography and loses nothing. The writing is fresh and cutting and perceptive in a way that any book written in 2022 could only aspire to be, even as it is closing in on 100 years old. One of the great degenerations of discourse (whether it be in politics, journalism,or academia) as it stands today is the loss of the guiding light of ideology. In pursuit of a moderate, neutral, “objective” view of reality, those who take it upon themselves to make sense of the world have surrendered the incredible tool that is an overt and proactive world view. The Black Jacobins is one of the best pieces of nonfiction writing I’ve ever come across that bears out how powerful a good writer with a good agenda can be. James comes from a Marxist perspective, and for a word so often bandied about, the popular conception of Marxism ignores what is its greatest strength, its historical clarity. Marx himself was the master of tracing historical trends and following them into possible futures. The facts and figures that often give people the impression that his work is dry and boring are, for the sensitive reader, imbued with prerogatives to work for a system that is fairer and that in the end will mean a better life for the mass majority of people. Throughout James’s book, you are constantly made aware of the reverberations the actions of the brave ex-slaves that overthrew their colonial oppressors as they course down through the years to the present day - James never lets you forget that the forces that made the destruction of San Domingo a necessity are still very much with us to this day. He, following the precepts first set out by Marx, understands that whatever evil ,vicious, inhumane behavior man commits, our basic nature is determined by our role in the power chain, reified in cold hard cash. Throughout the book, we are made to understand that the “race war” that the revolution eventually spiraled into was not the result of any essential difference in black or white, but rather the racial identities coming to perfectly equate with that persons role in the immensely profitable twin systems of colonialism and slavery. This point of view is so often lost in modern discussions of racism in the USA, accurately identified as a gaping shame on our country, but not often talked about as the symptom of an essential arrangement of economics and power, rather then the source of the problem itself. The fact that the final stages of the revolution resulted in the massacre of all the whites on the island was the direct result of the whites identifying themselves as the “masters” for the entirely of the preceding colonial history of San Domingo. How could slavery be truly and forever abolished when the people who only a few short years before had set themselves up as those with a biological imperative to rule and oppress were still living on the island? This of course is how systematic racism, being a convenient excuse for the grossest exploitation of labor, finally cuts the other way.… (more)

If you've seen Steve McQueen's exceptional series on Amazon Prime, Small Axe, then you are in some degree familiar with this classic account of the Haitian Revolution. In the first film in the suite of five, Mangrove, C.L.R. James appears as a character. Later in the same film, Barbara Beese, one of the real-life characters in this superlative film, expresses her consternation to her partner, the real-life Darcus Howe, who is beginning a rereading of The Black Jacobins, suggesting that he has read the book a sufficient number of times and should consider reading something else.

If you've read this book, you'll probably feel some sympathy for Darcus Howe, or anyone else who has read this book more than once. It is dense book, crammed with the minutiae of events of the Haitian Revolution and personalities connected with it, and undergirded with a plethora of evidence gleaned from primary sources. I do not for a moment that this book rewards those who reread it.

As I read the book, I quickly realized that to fully understand it without several rereadings, one really must read at the same time a reputable and comprehensive history of the French Revolution, with which the events in this book were intertwined to a much greater extent than I heretofore understood. The historiography of the French Revolution is vast, so you'll have a large selection from which to choose. For the record, Georges Lefebvre's The Coming of the French Revolution is highly regarded. In fact, as Mr. James points out in the bibliography of The Black Jacobins, "The crown of this work of over a century has been attained by M. Georges Lefebvre, whose one-volume history of the Revolution, and his mimeographed series of lectures to students at the Sorbonne, are a fitting climax to lifetime of indefatigable scholarship, sympathetic understanding, and balanced judgement of all parties, groups and individuals in the Revolution, which it would be difficult to parallel."

Finally, consider this statement, also gleaned from Mr. James bibliography to The Black Jacobins: "It is impossible to understand the San Domingo [i.e. Haitian] revolution unless it is studied in close relationship with the revolution in France."… (more)