In 1988, Wolff co-founded the journalRethinking Marxism. He made the 2009 documentaryCapitalism Hits the Fan.[9] In 2012, he released three new books:Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, withDavid Barsamian;Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian, withStephen Resnick; andDemocracy at Work. In 2019, he released his bookUnderstanding Marxism.[10]
Wolff hosts the weekly 30-minute-long programEconomic Update, produced by the non-profit Democracy at Work, which he co-founded.Economic Update is onYouTube,Free Speech TV,WBAI-FM in New York City (Pacifica Radio),CUNY TV (WNYE-DT3), and available as a podcast. Wolff is featured regularly in television, print, and internet media. He is considered by a number of media outlets to be influential in the field of Marxian economics,[11] andThe New York Times Magazine has named him "America's most prominent Marxist economist".[12] Wolff lives in Manhattan with his wife and frequent collaborator,Harriet Fraad, a practicingpsychotherapist.
"Everything you expect about how the world works probably will be changed in your life, that unexpected things happen, often tragic things happen, and being flexible, being aware of a whole range of different things that happen in the world, is not just a good idea as a thinking person, but it's crucial to your survival. So, for me, I grew up convinced that understanding the political and economic environment I lived in was an urgent matter that had to be done, and made me a little different from many of my fellow kids in school who didn't have that sense of the urgency of understanding how the world worked to be able to navigate an unstable and often dangerous world. That was a very important lesson for me."[15]
Wolff earned a Bachelor of Arts,magna cum laude, in history fromHarvard College in 1963.[14] He studied atStanford University withPaul A. Baran, earning a Master of Arts in economics in 1964.[14] After Baran's death in 1964, Wolff transferred toYale University, where he received a second master's degree in economics in 1966, a Master of Arts in history in 1967, and a Doctor of Philosophy ineconomics in 1969.[14] At Yale, he worked as an instructor.[14] His dissertation, "Economic Aspects of British Colonialism in Kenya, 1895–1930",[16] was published as a book in 1974.[17]
Wolff and Resnick's early co-authored publication, "The Theory of Transitional Conjunctures and the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism," appeared in theReview of Radical Political Economics in 1979.[21] The article explored the transition fromfeudalism tocapitalism, focusing on class dynamics and economic structures. Their collaboration extended to works likeKnowledge and Class, which drew onLouis Althusser andÉtienne Balibar'sReading Capital and interpretedKarl Marx'sCapital Volumes II and III.[4] They analyzed Marxian class theory as the study of surplus labor's performance, appropriation, and distribution, identifying class processes such as ancient, slave, feudal, capitalist, and communist.[4]
Marx used the word "exploitation" to focus analytical attention on what capitalism shared with feudalism and slavery, something that capitalist revolutions against slavery and feudalism never overcame.
In 1988, Wolff co-foundedRethinking Marxism, a journal dedicated to exploring Marxian concepts in economics and social sciences.[23] He served on its editorial board for over two decades and remains on the advisory board as of 2025.[24] In 1994, he was a visiting professor at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.[14] Wolff continues to teach graduate seminars and undergraduate courses at The New School and lectures at various institutions.[25]
Wolff was a founding member of theGreen Party branch inNew Haven, Connecticut, and its mayoral candidate in 1985.[26] In 2011, he called for a new left-wing political party in the United States.[27] He is a regular lecturer at theBrecht Forum and appears on television, radio, and in print media.[28] Since 2011, he has hostedEconomic Update, a weekly radio/TV show and podcast onWBAI in New York City.[29]
One of Wolff's students,George Papandreou, served asPrime Minister of Greece from 2009 to 2011. Wolff described Papandreou as a student interested in socialist economics.[30] However,CUNY professorCostas Panayotakis noted that Papandreou, despite campaigning againstausterity, implemented a criticized austerity program after Greece's debt crisis.[31]
Wolff is a co-founder ofDemocracy at Work, a non-profit that produces media and live events advocatingworkplace democracy and critiquing capitalism.[32] The organization is based on his 2012 book,Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism. Wolff also hosts the nationally syndicated programEconomic Update with Richard D. Wolff, produced by Democracy at Work.[33]
In a review of Wolff's bookDemocracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism, Hans G. Despain, writing forMarx and Philosophy, argued that the ideas presented in the book "deserve wide support and wide debate to repoliticize the American population and rejuvenate the American workforce and citizens."[34]
Resnick, Stephen A.; Wolff, Richard D. (1987).Knowledge and Class: A Marxian Critique of Political Economy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.ISBN0-226-71021-1.
Fraad, Harriet; Wolff, Richard; Resnick, Stephen (1994).Bringing It All Back Home: Class, Gender and Power in the Modern Household. Pluto Press.ISBN0-7453-0707-8.
Wolff, Richard D.; Resnick, Stephen; Ruccio, David F. (1988).Crisis and Transitions: A Critique of the International Economic Order. Westview Press.ISBN0-8133-0757-0.
Gibson-Graham, J.K.; Resnick, Stephen A.; Wolff, Richard D. (2000).Class and Its Others. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.ISBN0-8166-3618-4.
Gibson-Graham, J.K.; Resnick, Stephen A.; Wolff, Richard D. (2001).Re/Presenting Class: Essays in Postmodern Marxism. Durham: Duke University Press.ISBN0-8223-2709-0.
Resnick, Stephen A.; Wolff, Richard D. (2002).Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR. NY: Routledge.ISBN0-415-93317-X.
Resnick, Stephen A.; Wolff, Richard D. (2006).New Departures in Marxian Theory. NY: Routledge.ISBN0-415-77025-4.
Wolff, Richard D. (2009).Capitalism Hits the Fan. Olive Branch Press.ISBN978-1-56656-784-8.
Wolff, Richard D.; Resnick, Stephen A. (2012).Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.ISBN978-0262018005.
Wolff, Richard D. (2012).Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism. Chicago: Haymarket Books.ISBN978-1608462476.
Wolff, Richard D. (2016).Capitalism's Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown. Chicago: Haymarket Books.ISBN978-1608465958.
Wolff, Richard D. (2019).Understanding Marxism. New York: Democracy at Work.ISBN978-0359467020.
Wolff, Richard D. (2019).Understanding Socialism. New York: Democracy at Work.ISBN978-0578227344.
Wolff, Richard D. (2020).The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself. New York: Democracy at Work.
Wolff, Richard D. (2024).Understanding Capitalism. New York: Democracy at Work.ISBN978-1-7356013-6-6.
^Resnick, Stephen; Wolff, Richard (1979). "The Theory of Transitional Conjunctures and the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism".Review of Radical Political Economics.11 (3):3–22,32–36.doi:10.1177/048661347901100302.
