Book Review: Class Distinctions Thru History in Review by Stephen Joseph Scott
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author for the purpose of writing this review. No other compensation was requested or offered.
As long time readers of this blog will know, I’m not myself a historical scholar, just a reader of history books from time to time, so I am not necessarily someone who can judge whether a particular essay or rumination on historical events is correct or even reasonable. That said, I was sent this collection of historical essays.
Per the author’s bio, Mr. Scott is a qualified historian who uses a “historical materialist class-oriented application and inquiry” method. This appears to be descended from Marxist historical theory.
The first nine chapters are previously published essays in the order of publication. Two are on Martin Luther King Jr., one on the Cuban Revolution, one on the contradiction of democracy and class/ethnicity-based slavery in ancient Athens, one on the myth of American exceptionalism, one on how capitalism relied on and exacerbated race-based chattel slavery, one on the rise of the reactionary Right in the Republican party, plus one each movie and book review.
They’re all well-supported by the cited sources, but rather brief and felt introductory. Even as casual a history reader as I am, most of these essays didn’t feel like I was learning anything new to me.
I did feel a bit more connected to the essay on Cuba, as I remember my mother talking about the Cuban refugees she met who were desperately hoping to go home after the dictator was overthrown. The dictator Batista, that is. Would things have been better for the people of Cuba if the U.S. government hadn’t been so insistent on trying to get Castro overthrown? Maybe.
The review of Green Book (2018) allows the author to really dig into a more personalized piece, applying the historical materialism lens to a Hollywood take on American racism in the early 1960s. I learned some new vocabulary, and this was the most interesting essay in the book.
The review of Where the Negroes Are Master by Randy J. Sparks is much shorter, but intriguing as the other book is about the African end of the Atlantic slave trade, something I know little about.
The back half of the book is a previously unpublished dissertation, “Philadelphia and the Darkside of Liberty.” It talks about the Constitution of the United States of America and how it talks about “we the people” but meaning something other than all the people. A fear of the lower class and the desire to hold on to wealth and property (including human property, i.e. slaves) resulted in a political structure that tried to keep the monied class in power as much as possible. But this didn’t quite fit the mass of people in the new country, so there was constant pressure upwards, especially once the notion that slavery was inherently unjust even when applied to the “other” really took root.
I think the scattershot nature of the collection works against it. A more focused collection of essays with a build from basic topic to deep dive might be a good next step for the author.
The book appears to be self-published and could have used another proofreader pass; there’s a number of spellchecker typos. There’s an extensive bibliography and an index.
Recommended to those with an interest in historical materialist views of primarily American history who want a good place to start.
