SOURCE: “Double Consciousness and the Cultural Politics of F. O. Matthiessen,” in Monthly Review, February, 1983, pp. 34-56.

In the following essay, Marx elucidates Matthiessen's political ideology and determines how these beliefs impacted his literary work.

The bulk of mankind believe in two gods. They are under one dominion here in the house, as friend and parent, in social circles, in letters, in art, in love, in religion; but in mechanics, in dealing with steam and climate, in trade, in politics, they think they come under another; and that it would be a practical blunder to transfer the method and way of working of one sphere into the other. What good, honest, generous men at home, will be wolves and foxes on ‘Change. What pious men in the parlor will vote for what reprobates at the polls! To a certain point, they believe themselves in the care of a...