A renowned activist, author and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Cornel West has built a reputation as one of the great academic minds of Western philosophy. After he pioneered his way through school, earning his bachelor's degree from Harvard and then becoming the first African American to graduate with a Ph.D from Princeton in 1980, he went on to teach at both of his Alma Maters as well as the University of Paris. His work on gender, race and classism in America reflects a multitude of traditions and schools of thought, from Marxism and Socialistm to transcendentalism, black existentialism and Christianity. He's a noted critic of the Obama Administration, despite his initial support of Obama as a Presidential candidate, and often calls himself a non-Marxist Socialist, since Marxism cannot be reconciled with his own Christian beliefs. Though his views have put him at odds with various colleagues, most notably former US Treasury Secretary and President of Harvard Lawrence Summers, West offers a critical hawk's eye view of contemporary American society and thought.
