KARL MARX IN AMERICA | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation

is the vital and untold story of Karl Marx’s stamp on American life. In this book, historian Andrew Hartman argues that even though Karl Marx never visited America, the country has been infused, shaped, and transformed by him. Since the beginning of the Civil War, Marx has been a specter in the American machine. During the Gilded Age, socialists read Marx as an antidote to the unchecked power of corporations. In the Great Depression, communists turned to Marx in hopes of transcending the destructive capitalist economy. The young activists of the 1960s were inspired by Marx as they gathered to protest an overseas war. Marx’s influence today is evident, too, as Americans have become increasingly attuned to issues of inequality, labor, and power. A starred Kirkus review describes Karl Marx in America as "a nimble study that sheds new light on Marx’s thought and enduring influence.” 

Andrew Hartman is joining us on the Busboys stage alongside historian and author Timothy Shenk to share his experiences investigating police violence and accountability in New Orleans. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Hartman will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of KARL MARX IN AMERICA will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed. 

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is professor of history at Illinois State University and the author of three books:  Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars (University of Chicago Press, 2015; second edition 2019); and, Karl Marx in America (University of Chicago Press, 2025). He is also the co-editor of American Labyrinth: Intellectual History for Complicated Times (Cornell University Press, 2018). Hartman has been published in a host of academic and popular venues, including the Washington Post, Baffler, Chronicle of Higher Education, Reviews in American History, Journal of Policy History, Salon, Jacobin, and In These Times.

, a historian at the George Washington University and author of two recent books, (Columbia Global Reports, 2024); and (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022), named one of the best political books of 2022 by the Wall Street Journal. A senior editor at Dissent, his writings have appeared in a number of outlets, including the New York Times, the Nation, the New Republic, the Guardian, and the London Review of Books. In 2024, he was named GW’s best professor by the university’s student newspaper, the Hatchet.

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