Book Review: Class War, Then and Now by Chris Wright

Chris Wright’s Class War, Then and Now is a wide-ranging collection of essays (2014–2024) that assembles cultural criticism, history, political economy, and strategic reflection into a single, sometimes combative, argument for rebuilding a rational, materialist left capable of facing the twin crises of ecological collapse and concentrated capital. The book is usefully organized into four parts—Values, History, Questioning Dogmas, and Identity Politics—and the preface makes the book’s animating concern plain: capitalism’s runaway logic threatens civilization and only renewed popular movements and new institutions can save us. 

Wright’s best work in this volume combines clear prose with intellectual breadth. Several essays—on the value of the humanities, on music and culture, and on the moral foundations of communitarian tendencies—remind the reader why cultural and aesthetic life matter to political imagination, not merely as ornament but as fuel for solidarity and critical thought. His writing here is emphatically readable: he avoids academic turgidity, privileges argument over jargon, and frequently connects high-culture reflections (Beethoven, classical music) to political purpose in a way that refreshes rather than lectures. 

Where the book is most valuable is in its strategic reassessment of socialist hope and tactics: Wright refuses both naïve immediatism and sterile determinism, offering instead a long-range, multi-pronged picture of how cooperative institutions, solidarity economies, and political pressure might slowly shift the balance of social power. His “Eleven Theses on Socialist Revolution” and related essays are thoughtful attempts to update Marxian categories for the twenty-first century, insisting on a relative, historically situated notion of “fettering” and on combining statal and interstitial strategies rather than fetishizing a single model of seizure. At the same time he is unafraid to break with left orthodoxies—defending nuclear energy as essential to decarbonization and sharply criticizing certain strains of identity politics—moves that will provoke argument but also force necessary debate. 

Those strengths come with costs. The anthology form produces unevenness: some essays feel refined and consequential, others repetitive or polemical; readers looking for a single, systematic theory will be frustrated by the book’s episodic nature and occasional rhetorical excess. Wright’s frank dismissals of postmodern currents and his sternures toward particular public figures can read as alienating to readers the author wants to persuade, and some of his practical timelines for transformation strike me as optimistic in the face of entrenched power—though he openly acknowledges that optimism’s limits. Nonetheless, the book’s combination of moral urgency, intellectual eclecticism, and strategic seriousness makes it an important contribution to contemporary left debate. 

At its best, the book feels both humane and galvanizing: Wright writes with a generosity of curiosity about people’s lived experiences and an eye for small, actionable institutions as well as big-picture theory. The essays that linger are those that marry careful historical examples to concrete proposals—cooperative enterprises, workplace organizing strategies, and cultural interventions—that readers can imagine trying in their own communities. His empathy for ordinary struggles, combined with clear if provokable prescriptions, turns many passages into practical fuel for organizing rather than merely abstract critique; that practical orientation, allied with crisp writing and an evident love for intellectual labor, makes the collection unexpectedly uplifting even when it is most urgent.

Verdict: Class War, Then and Now is an invigorating, sometimes infuriating, but ultimately worthwhile collection for anyone interested in left strategy, cultural critique, and Marxist rethinking today. It’s strongest when it marries cultural argument to political strategy and weakest when it slides into sweeping polemic; readers should expect provocations and a genuine attempt at synthesis. Recommended for activists, students of political thought, and readers who want a frank, historically informed case for rebuilding a democratic, cooperative left. 

Rating: ★★★★½☆ (4.5/5)