Cultural Studies 1983 is a testament to Stuart Hall's contributions to progressive thought and politics. The eight foundational lectures that Hall delivered at the University of Illinois in 1983 introduced a broad range of audiences to a thinker and a discipline that changed the course of critical scholarship and of political imagination and strategy.

Unavailable until now, these lectures clearly lay out Hall's original engagement with the theoretical positions that led to the formation of Cultural Studies. While presenting the intellectual background of the discipline of Cultural Studies, Hall discusses the works of Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, and E. P. Thompson; the influence of structuralism; the limitations and possibilities of Marxist theory; the importance of Althusser, and the radical possibilities opened up by Gramsci.

These lectures also highlight the connection between Hall’s academic work and his political strategizing. As a founding member of the original English New Left, and the founding editor of New Left Review, Hall helped to reshape and reorient our understanding of progressive politics in the modern world.

This book will be invaluable to scholars and students in the disciplines of critical race studies, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, literary studies, gender studies, political science, and sociology.