Marxism and Historical Practice

Bryan D. Palmer is one of Canada's preeminent historians, and one who has consistently extended the reach of social and labour history in Marxist ways. His publications include award winning monographs on Canadian topics from the Knights of Labor in the 1880s to Canada's 1960s, as well as wide-ranging excursions into global histories of transgression and marginality. In addition, he has written extensively on theoretical and historiographic realms. Marxism and Historical Practice draws together a selection of Palmer's writings from the past four decades, organizing them in two volumes that address the history of class formation and class struggle, on the one hand, and theory and historiography on the other. These volumes reveal the richness of Marxism as a historical practice, and the ways in which historical materialism can illuminate the diverse subjects of the past and the concerns of the present.