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A never-before-published book by the Pan-Africanist and socialist scholar and revolutionary

In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading revolutionary thinkers of the Black Sixties. Earning his PhD in 1966 at the age of 24 and publishing his influential history, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, at 30, Rodney became a leading force of dissent throughout the Caribbean and a lightning rod of controversy. The 1958 Rodney Riots erupted in Jamaica when he was prevented from returning to his teaching post at the University of the West Indies. In 1980, Rodney was assassinated in Guyana, reportedly at the behest of the government.

In the mid-´70s, Rodney taught a course on the Russian Revolution at the Universtiy of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. A Pan-Africanist and Marxist, Rodney sought to make sense of the reverberations of the October Revolution in a decolonizing world marked by Third World revolutionary movements. He intended to publish a book based on his research and teaching. Now historians Jesse Benjamin, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Vijay Prashad have edited Rodney´s polished chapters and unfinished lecture notes, presenting the book that Rodney had hoped to publish.

The Russian Revolution is a signal event in radical publishing, and will inaugurate Verso Books´s standard edition of Walter Rodney´s works.

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Walter Anthony Rodney was a prominent Guyanese historian, political activist and scholar, who was assassinated in Guyana in 1980.

Jesse Benjamin is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Kennesaw State University. The author of more than 60 articles, chapters, and books, he chairs the publication committee of the Walter Rodney Foundation.

Robin D. G. Kelley is professor of history at UCLA. He is the author of five books, most recently Africa Speaks, America Answers!: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times.

Vijay Prashad is the Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Reseach and Chief Editor of LeftWord Books. He is the author of The Poorer Nations and the editor of Letters from Palestine, both from Verso.

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