Red Traces: Culture and Class Struggle in the Ancient World - Sean Ledwith

The past, as William Faulkner wrote, is never dead. It’s not even past. 

Ranging from cave paintings to the Dead Sea Scrolls, from the Trojan War to the Mahabharata, Red Traces explores how the Marxist tradition seeks to explain the cultural peaks of our ancient history and how they relate to the concerns of the present. 

It is often true that the news headlines of the 21st century can be related to the class conflicts and crises of antiquity. In Red Traces, Sean Ledwith shows us how understanding the struggles of the oppressed in the ancient world can inspire the same type of struggles today.

‘Beautifully written… a sophisticated and deft Marxist analysis’

Tony McKenna, philosopher and novelist, author of Has Political Correctness Gone Mad? Interrogating a Right-wing Conspiracy Theory, (Bloomsbury, 2024)