It’s no accident that the history of Marxist thought is dominated by a small cluster of European thinkers. Occasionally, some space is made for a Frantz Fanon or a C. L. R. James, whose origins lie outside Europe. On very rare occasions, there is serious discussion of Marxist theorists who operated entirely outside Europe, like the Peruvian José Carlos Mariátegui or the Indian “subaltern studies” school. But the reality is that European thinkers predominate. Still today, the story of Marxism is normally told in terms of the diffusion of ideas from a Western center to a non-Western periphery.

Such imbalances are almost unavoidable, given the disproportionate prestige and influence of European thought in the twentieth century. However, they also raise specific issues for the history of Marxism. After all, Marxist thought and practice has drawn much of its vitality from developments outside Europe. Marxist-inspired governments in countries like Cuba, Vietnam, and China arguably represent Marxism’s signature contribution to twentieth-century politics, at least as important as the various post-1917 attempts to make communism work in Europe.

This poses the problem of how the history of Marxism can be rewritten to take account of its global reach. One way is simply to make more space for non-Western ideas and personalities. Another is to turn the geography of Western Marxism upside down. This means recognizing that, while canonical European Marxist thought did travel to far-flung corners of the globe, there was also a return journey, as the ideas being articulated in the periphery reshaped those at the center.