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Left
of Karl Marx
by Dr. Carole Boyce Davies
AWARDS
Africana and English faculty member Carol
Boyce Davies has received an award from the Association of Black Women
Historians for her historical biography of radical intellectual Claudia
Jones.
www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct08/daviesBook.da.html
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On behalf of
the 2008 Association of Black Women Historians’ Letitia Woods Brown
Memorial Book Award committee, I would like to congratulate Carole Boyce
Davies and Duke University Press for winning the 2008 Letitia Woods Brown
award for Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia
Jones. The committee unanimously viewed this work as one
worthy of the award and the attention of historians in general. Committee
member’s reported comments such as:
This piece explores a previously under researched subject of the Black
radial activist Claudia Jones. Davies uses a wide array of documents to
examine the political and personal life of Claudia Jones including primary
archival materials and interviews. Paula Seniors, Ph.D.
I was captivated by this book! It is a real page turner, which is hard to
find in any history book. Davies’ writing is poetic; her research
impeccable; her contribution to the field is unparalleled. The title is
brilliant—especially given what Jones added to international radicalism.
She was, indeed, “Left of Karl Marx.” So few of the works we consider
for this prize are so international
in scope. Davies has made critical contributions to several fields,
including Women in the African Diaspora and radical African American
women. Nikki Taylor, Ph.D.
Davies writes about the lifetime desire of Claudia Jones to address
injustice led to her multiple arrests, health problems and an absence in
American history. Yet, Jones remained a freedom fighter with
politics ideologically to the left of Marx, because she advocated for
women’s rights along with social justice. Davies has recovered Jones
from the shadow of history giving her a rightful place at the center of
scholarship our attention and consumption. Ida Jones, Ph.D.
Ida E. Jones, Ph.D.
Letitia Woods Brown Committee
Senior Manuscript Librarian
Manuscript Division
Moorland Spingarn Research Center
500 Howard Place, NW
Building #29
Washington, DC 20059
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