Contents

Preface

Introduction. Communists, Writers, and Other Outsiders

1. The Ragged Proletariat: Itineraries for a Transient Concept

2. Richard Wright and the Lumpenproletarian Desire for Revolution

3. From Oklahoma City to Tuskegee, from Harlem to Dayton: The Sites, Levels, and Travels of Ralph Ellison’s Marxism

4. Prostitutes, Delinquents, and Folk Heroes: Margaret Walker’s Lumpenproletariat

Conclusion. Afterlives of the Depression Lumpenproletariat

Notes

Index