Shortlisted for the 2020 Deutscher Prize
What does the development of a truly robust contemporary theory of domination require? Ashley J. Bohrer argues that it is only by considering all of the dimensions of race, gender, sexuality, and ability within the structures of capitalism and imperialism that we can understand power relations as we find them nowadays. Bohrer explains how many of the purported incompatibilities between Marxism and intersectionality arise more from miscommunication rather than a fundamental conceptual antagonism. As the first monograph entirely devoted to this issue, Marxism and Intersectionality serves as a tool for activists and academics working against multiple systems of domination, exploitation, and oppression.
What people are saying.
“In a world of multiple and in some cases worsening oppressions, the challenge of understanding—and strategizing how best to overcome—social domination and social injustice has become more acute than ever. Ashley Bohrer’s striking intervention in current debates, informed not merely by an impressive familiarity with multiple literatures but her deep engagement with activist communities, makes a boldly contrarian case for the reconciliation of Marxism and intersectionality theory. Whatever side you are on in this debate, this is a book very much worth reading.”
— Charles W. Mills, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, The CUNY Graduate Center, author of The Racial Contract
“This is a necessary and crucial intellectual and political intervention that will change the terms of Left conversation.”
— Jennifer C. Nash, Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Duke University, author of Black Feminism Reimagined
“In this highly readable book, Ashley Bohrer brings two critical formations that have often —despite their obvious and historic overlaps—been opposed to one another. Arguing that Marxism and intersectionality must be thought together, Bohrer’s book carefully demonstrates that any plan aimed at real and holistic social transformation must hold both traditions in critical awareness.”
— Roderick Ferguson, Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and American Studies, Yale University, author of Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique
“Putting to rest caricatures of 'identity politics' and reductionist views of power, Bohrer demonstrates how thoroughly race, gender, and sexuality permeate capitalist exploitation and oppression.”
— Iyko Day, Associate Professor of English, Mt. Holyoke College, author of Alien Capital: Asian Racialization and the Logic of Settler Colonial Capitalism
Reviews of Marxism and Intersectionality
Sandro Mezzadra in Euronomade
“Bohrer rilegge la “tradizione intersezionale” dal punto di vista delle critiche che le sono state rivolte dal marxismo, accogliendone alcune ma soprattutto proponendo una lettura in chiave intersezionale di essenziali categorie marxiane. Più in generale, il libro è sostenuto da una forte tensione politica, che conduce l’autrice a riformulare in modo molto interessante nell’ultimo capitolo i principi di fondo di una politica della solidarietà e della coalizione.”
Peter Drucker in Rampant Magazine
“Ashley Bohrer’s Marxism and Intersectionality is indispensable reading for socialists trying to understand how class, race and gender mesh.”
Read the full review and Neila Sanco’s translation into Portuguese
Jules Joanne Gleeson in The New Socialist
“Marxism and Intersectionality serves as a groundbreaking and regrettably unprecedented critical examination of two traditions which are often all too crudely cast as competing rivals. Marxism and Intersectionality is commendable both for its legwork compiling a much wider range of scholarship than any one book would usually allow, and carefully demonstrating the commensurate features without dismissing differences.”
Jesse McLaren in Monthly Review and Spring Magazine
“Fortunately there is now a rising level of struggle. There are movements, from Black Lives Matter to climate justice and decent work, using intersectional frameworks to centre those who are multiply oppressed and exploited. And there is a renewed interest in socialist politics that can address economic exploitation, multiple oppressions and the climate crisis. The current context offers the opportunity to rediscover intersectional politics applied to class struggle, and Marxism rooted in anti-oppression. Marxism and Intersectionality provides a helpful guide for the ongoing dialogue that can build movements of solidarity by bringing these two traditions back into convergence.”
Read the full article in Monthly Review and Spring Magazine
Elizabeth Kovacs in Kult
“Bohrer ambitiously maps – through detailed historical and nuanced theoretical analyses – how seeming incompatibilities and critiques are more often than not erroneous, based on overly simplistic understandings of and miscommunications between sides. She pinpoints the ways in which these two traditions can be mobilized to work towards their shared ultimate aim of overthrowing oppressive and exploitative structures of racism, sexism, classism, and sexual discrimination under capitalism.”
Read the full article in Kult