Raymond Williams was "by common consent" one of the "two most
commanding intellectual figures in the New Left that emerged in
Britain at the turn of the sixties," the other being Edward
Thompson. Williams published in 1961 a text entitled "The Future of
Marxism." In that essay, Williams has some remarkable things to say
about imperialism, the successes of actually existing socialism,
balanced against its failures, and the continued relevance of
socialism as the horizon of human liberation. He also makes a
characteristic methodological point: "the relation between systems
of thought and actual history is both complex and surprising." The
future of Marxism, that is to say, will not depend on dogma, but
will instead rest on historical developments, on how well are able
to actualize Marx's ideals in our own unique conjuncture. This
volume takes up the challenge of reading and extending Williams's
thought in light of the actual history that has occurred since his
passing but with the same ideal of socialism as its guiding
horizon. If there is one thread visible throughout all of
Williams's work, it is the felt presence of a living, thinking
individual, of a person continually testing ideas in experience in
order to see whether they fit the world they are meant to describe.
The aim of this volume, timed to coincide with what would have been
Williams's 100th birthday, is to test his ideas in our own
experience and to engage Williams's work in ways that move past the
familiar terrain that has grown around it. We now know that
"experience" is a dangerous category, that "community" can be
hijacked by the right as much as the left, and that "tradition"
contains as much conflict as commonality. Those committed to
Williams's work can easily find textual arguments or developments
across his career to answer these charges, and they have. What our
volume offers is a set of arguments by younger scholars influenced
by Williams's writings that moves past some of these debates,
extending Williams's work into the 21st century, testing and
weighing his ideas in light of recent developments and contemporary
intellectual culture. In doing so, we treat Williams's thought as
one of those "resources of hope," which he famously suggested would
sustain us. At a time of deepening inequality and austerity and
growing rightward reaction, and yet simultaneously, and with
seeming dialectical necessity, a renewed investment in socialism,
Williams might be exactly the kind of figure we need.
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