Raymond Williams' prolific output is increasingly recognised as the most influential body of work on literary and cultural studies in the past fifty years. This book provides the most comprehensive study to date of the theoretical and historical context of Williams' thinking on literature, politics and culture.
John Higgins traces:
* Williams' intellectual development
* the related growth of a New Left cultural politics
* the origins of the theory and practice of cultural materialism.
Raymond Williams is an astonishing achievement and will challenge many received ideas about Williams' work.

John Higgins is Senior Lecturer in English and a Convenor of the Theory of Literature Programme at the University of Cape Town. He is the founding editor of the journal Pretexts: Studies in Writing and Culture.

Contents, , Introduction, Chapter 1. The Tight Place: Marxism or Literature 1947-1950, Chapter 2. Drama and the Structure of Feeling 1947-1957, Chapter 3. Culture and Communication, Chapter 4. Cambridge Criticism 1962-1973, Chapter 5. Marxisms: Contra Caudwell, Against Althusser, Chapter 6. Towards a Cultural Materialism 1977-1981, Chapter 7. Against the New Conformism 1981-1987, Conclusion, Notes, Bibliography.