Hall’s Marxism formed against Soviet authoritarianism, not from socialist orthodoxy

Evidence

I entered Cultural Studies from the New Left, and the New Left always regarded Marxism as a problem, as trouble, as danger, not as a solution. Why? It had nothing to do with theoretical questions as such or in isolation. It had to do with the fact that my own (and its own) political formation occurred in a moment historically very much like the one we are in now—which I am astonished that so few people have addressed—the moment of the disintegration of a certain kind of Marxism. In fact, the first British New Left emerged in 1956 at the moment of the disintegration of an entire historical/political project. In that sense I came into Marxism backward: against the Soviet tanks in Budapest, as it were. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 240

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains what the British New Left was and the political moment that produced it: 1956, Hungary, the disintegration of an orthodox Marxist project.
• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School group’s similar formation against both fascism and Soviet orthodoxy, and how intellectuals forge critical theory in moments of movement disintegration.