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Historical Materialism book cover 1
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Historical Materialism
Series · 62
books · 1977-2019

Books in series

The New Dialectic and Marx's Capital book cover
#1

The New Dialectic and Marx's Capital

2002

This book both argues for, and demonstrates, a new turn to dialectic. Marx's Capital was clearly influenced by Hegel's dialectical here, case by case, the significance of these is clarified. More, it is argued that, instead of the dialectic of the rise and fall of social systems, what is needed is a method of articulating the dialectical relations characterising a given social whole. Marx learnt from Hegel the necessity for a systematic development, and integration, of categories; for example, the category of 'value' can be fully comprehended only in the context of the totality of capitalist relations. These studies thus shed new light on Marx's great work, while going beyond it in many respects.
The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx book cover
#2

The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx

2002

“This book is brilliant, incisive, honest and deserves to be read with attention. It is an important event in the Marxist theoretical production.” —Politique Hebdo “A remarkable essay, whose merit is not only theoretical, but also historical, because it examines unknown aspects of the evolution of young Marx’s thinking.”—Politis In the 1840s, the young German journalist Karl Marx developed ideas about modern society that remain as relevant today as when they were first developed. Here Löwy shows the lasting force of Marx’s early writings on alienation and emancipation. Michael Löwy is research director in sociology at the Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique, Paris. He is the author of many books, including Romanticism Against the Tide of Modernity.
Making History book cover
#3

Making History

Agency, Structure, and Change in Social Theory

1987

Making History is about the question - central to social theory - of how human agents draw their powers from the social structures they are involved in. Drawing on classical Marxism, analytical philosophy, and a wide range of historical writing, Alex Callinicos seeks to avoid two unacceptable extremes - dissolving the subject into an impersonal flux, as poststructuralists tend to - and treating social structures as the mere effects of individual action (for example, rational-choice theory). Among those discussed are Althusser, Anderson, Benjamin, Brenner, Cohen, Elster, Foucault, Giddens, Habermas, and Mann. Callinicos has written an extended introduction to this new edition that reviews developments since Making History was first published in 1987. This republication gives a new generation of readers access to an important intervention in Marxism and social theory.
The German Revolution, 1917-1923 book cover
#5

The German Revolution, 1917-1923

2004

“Broué enables us to feel that we are actually living through these epoch-making events…. [D]o not miss this magnificent work.”—Robert Brenner, UCLA A magisterial, definitive account of the upheavals in Germany in the wake of the Russian revolution. Broué meticulously reconstitutes six decisive years, 1917-23, of social struggles in Germany. The consequences of the defeat of the German revolution had profound consequences for the world. Pierre Broué (1926-2005) was for many years Professor of Contemporary History at the Institut d’études politiques in Grenoble and was a world renowned specialist on the communist and international workers’ movements.
Between Equal Rights book cover
#6

Between Equal Rights

A Marxist Theory of International Law

2006

“China Mieville’s brilliantly original book is an indispensable guide for anyone concerned with international law. It is the most comprehensive scholarly account available of the central theoretical debates about the foundations of international law. It offers a guide for the lay reader into the central texts in the field.”—Peter Gowan, Professor, International Relations, London Metropolitan University. Mieville critically examines existing theories of international law and offers a compelling alternative Marxist view. China Mieville, PhD, International Relations, London School of Economics, is an independent researcher and an award-winning novelist. His novel Perdido Street Station won the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Utopia Ltd. book cover
#7

Utopia Ltd.

Ideologies of Social Dreaming in England 1870-1900

2005

This book uncovers the historical preconditions for the explosive revival of utopian literature at the nineteenth-century "fin de siecle," and excavates its ideological content. It marks a contribution not only to the literary and cultural history of the late-Victorian period, and to the expanding field of utopian studies, but to the development of a Marxist critique of utopianism. The book is particularly concerned with three kinds of political utopia or anti-utopia, those of 'state socialism', feminism, and anti-communism (the characteristic expression of this last example being the "cacotopia"). After an extensive contextual account of the politics of utopia in late-nineteenth century England, it devotes a chapter to each of these topics before developing an original reinterpretation of William Morris' seminal Marxist utopia, "News from Nowhere,"
Lenin Rediscovered book cover
#9

Lenin Rediscovered

What Is to Be Done? In Context

2005

What Is to Be Done? has long been interpreted as evidence of Lenin’s “elitist” attitude toward workers. Lih uses a wide range of previously unavailable contextual sources to fundamentally overturn this reading of history’s most misunderstood revolutionary text. He argues that Lenin’s polemic must be seen within the context of a rising worker’s movement in Russia, and shows that Lenin’s perspective fit squarely within the mainstream of the socialist movement of his time. Rather than the manifesto of an authoritarian leader, Lih reveals a guide to action to help cohere and strengthen a promising movement, which still maintains remarkable relevance to today’s world. “Clearly written, well-reasoned, and effectively documented, it is a work that no scholar seriously examining the life and thought of Lenin will be able to ignore.” —Paul Le Blanc, author of Marx, Lenin, and the Revolutionary Experience: Studies of Communism and Radicalism in the Age of Globalization “If we are honestly to assess the lessons of the Russian Revolution, then it is essential that we unpick the real Lenin from this shared Stalinist and liberal myth of ‘Leninism’. It would be difficult to praise too highly Lars Lih’s contribution to such an honest reassessment of Lenin’s thought. At its heart, Lih’s book aims to overthrow, and succeeds in overthrowing, what he calls the ‘textbook interpretation’ of Lenin’s What is to be done? Lih thus adds to and deepens the arguments of those who have sought to recover the real Lenin from the Cold War mythology.” —Paul Blackledge, author, Historical Materialism and Social Evolution
Globalisation book cover
#10

Globalisation

A Systematic Marxian Account

2006

Part One of this book examines the social-state, neoliberal, catalytic-state, and democratic-cosmopolitan models of globalisation. Each necessarily tends to function in a manner contradicting essential claims made by its leading advocates. This "immanent contradiction" provides a theoretical warrant for moving to a new position, addressing the shortcomings of the previous framework. The first three chapters of Part Two are devoted to a Marxian model of capitalist globalisation, in which the irresolvable contradictions and social antagonisms of the capitalist global order are explicitly recognised. The final chapter is devoted to a Marxian model of socialist globalisation, in which those contradictions and antagonisms are overcome, bringing the systematic dialectic of globalisation to a close.
Marxism and Ecological Economics book cover
#11

Marxism and Ecological Economics

Toward a Red and Green Political Economy

2006

This book undertakes the first general assessment of ecological economics from a Marxist point of view, and shows how Marxist political economy can make a substantial contribution to ecological economics. The analysis is developed in terms of four basic (1) nature and economic value; (2) the treatment of nature as capital; (3) the significance of the entropy law for economic systems; (4) the concept of sustainable development. In each case, it is shown that Marxism can help ecological economics fulfill its commitments to multi-disciplinarity, methodological pluralism, and historical openness. In this way, a foundation is constructed for a substantive dialogue between Marxists and ecological economists. Paul Burkett, Ph.D. (1984) in Economics, Syracuse University, is Professor of Economics at Indiana State University, Terre Haute. His publications on Marxism and ecology include Marx and A Red and Green Perspective (St. Martin's Press, 1999) and many articles in scholarly journals.
A Marxist Philosophy of Language book cover
#12

A Marxist Philosophy of Language

2006

The purpose of this book is to give a precise meaning to the formula: English is the language of imperialism. Understanding that statement involves a critique of the dominant views of language, both in the field of linguistics (the book has a chapter criticising Chomsky’s research programme) and of the philosophy of language (the book has a chapter assessing Habermas’s philosophy of communicative action). ?The book aims at constructing a Marxist philosophy of language, embodying a view of language as a social, historical, material and political phenomenon. Since there has never been a strong tradition of thinking about language in Marxism, the book provides an overview of the question of Marxism in language (from Stalin’s pamphlet to Voloshinov's book, taking in an essay by Pasolini), and it seeks to construct a number of concepts for a Marxist philosophy of language. ?The book belongs to the tradition of Marxist critique of dominant ideologies. It should be particularly useful to those who, in the fields of language study, literature and communication studies, have decided that language is not merely an instrument of communication.
Althusser book cover
#13

Althusser

The Detour of Theory

1987

First published in 1987, Althusser, The Detour of Theory was widely received as the fullest account of its subject to date. Drawing on a wide range of hitherto untranslated material, it examined the political and intellectual contexts of Althusser s return to Marx in the mid-1960s; analysed the novel character of the Marxism developed in his major works; charted their author s subsequent evolution, from his self-criticism to the proclamation of a crisis of Marxism; and concluded with a balance-sheet of Althusser s contribution to historical materialism. For this second edition, Gregory Elliott has added a substantial postscript in which he surveys the posthumous edition of the French philosopher s work published in the 1990s, from the early writings of the 1940s through to the late texts of the 1980s, relating the unknown Althusser revealed by them to the familiar figure of For Marx and Reading Capital, together with a comprehensive bibliography of Althusser s oeuvre."
Exploring Marx's Capital book cover
#14

Exploring Marx's Capital

Philosophical, Economic and Political Dimensions

2006

This volume, originally published in French, offers a new interpretation of Marx’s great work. By exploring the work as a step in a process of theoretical development, Jacques Bidet re-assesses Marx’s system in its set of constitutive categories, seeking to pin down the difficulties they encountered and the analytical and critical value they still have today.
Impersonal Power book cover
#15

Impersonal Power

History and Theory of the Bourgeois State

2006

The point of departure of Heide Gerstenberger’s path-breaking work is a critique of structural-functionalist theory of the state, in both its modernisation theory and materialist variants. Prof. Gerstenberger opposes to these a historical-theoretical explanation that proceeds from the long-term structuring effect of concrete social practice. This is elucidated by detailed investigation of the development of bourgeois state power in the two key examples of England and France. The different complexions that the bourgeois state assumed are presented as the results of processes of social and cultural formation, and thus irreducible to a simple function of capitalism. This approach culminates in the thesis that the bourgeois form of capitalist state power arose only where capitalist societies developed out of already rationalised structures of the Ancien Régime type.
Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism book cover
#16

Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism

2007

The Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism is an international and interdisciplinary volume which aims to provide a thorough and precise panorama of recent developments in Marxist theory in the US, Europe, Asia and beyond. Drawing on the work of thirty of the most authoritative scholars, the Companion spans all the humanities and social sciences, with particular emphasis on philosophy. The work is divided into three 'General Trends', which provides a broad intellectual and historical context; 'Currents', which tracks the trajectories of twenty specific currents or disciplinary fields; and 'Figures', which examines in detail the work of fifteen key actors of Marxist or para-Marxist theory (Adorno, Althusser, Badiou, Benjamin, Bhaskar, Bourdieu, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Gramsci, Habermas, Jameson, Lefebvre, Uno, Williams). The Companion is set to be unsurpassed for many years, in breadth and depth, as the definitive guide to contemporary Marxism. Jacques Bidet is Professor at the University of Paris-X, holding the chair of Political Philosophy and Theories of Society. His other publications include Théorie de la modernité (1990), John Rawls et la théorie de la justice (1995), Théorie générale, Théorie du droit, de l’économie et de la politique (1999) and Explication et reconstruction du 'Capital' (2004). His Exploring Marx's 'Capital' was published in the HM Book Series in 2007. Stathis Kouvelakis teaches Political Theory and Philosophy at King's College London. He is the author of Philosophy and Revolution. From Kant to Marx (London, 2003) and the co-editor, with Slavoj Zizek and Sebastian Budgen, of Lenin Reloaded. Towards a Politics of Truth (Durham, 2007).
Western Marxism and the Soviet Union book cover
#17

Western Marxism and the Soviet Union

A Survey of Critical Theories and Debates Since 1917

2007

“The amount of sources the author has studied is staggering . . . the book [has] an encyclopedic value and [is] accessible to all scholars interested in political history.”—Martin Kragh, Stockholm School of Economics “Since the Russian experience is still used to vilify the idea of socialism, the debate remains relevant. Van der Linden . . . has now produced a comprehensive scholarly account of the arguments.”—Ian Birchall, London Socialist Historians Group The “Russian Question” was an absolutely central problem for Marxism in the twentieth century. Numerous attempts were made to understand the nature of Soviet society. Here Marcel van der Linden describes the development of these theoretical contributions since 1917. Marcel van der Linden is research director of the International Institute of Social History and professor in the History of Social Movements at the University of Amsterdam.
Criticism of Heaven book cover
#18

Criticism of Heaven

On Marxism and Theology

2007

Why do some of the major Marxists of the twentieth century engage extensively with theology? What is the influence on their other work? This book explores the instersections between Marxism and theology in the work of Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Louis Althusser, Henri Lefebvre, Antonio Gramsci, Terry Eagleton, Slavoj iek and Theodor Adorno.
Alasdair MacIntyre's Engagement with Marxism book cover
#19

Alasdair MacIntyre's Engagement with Marxism

Selected Writings 1953-1974

2008

Although Alasdair MacIntyre is best known today as the author of After Virtue (1981), he was, in the 1950s and 1960s, one of the most erudite members of Britain’s Marxist being a militant within, first, the Communist Party, then the New Left, and finally the heterodox Trotskyist International Socialism group. This selection of his essays on Marxism from that period aims to show that his youthful thought profoundly informed his mature ethics, and that, in the wake of the collapse of the state-capitalist regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe, the powerful and optimistic revolutionary Marxist ethics of liberation he articulated in that period is arguably as salient to anti-capitalist activists today as it was half a century ago. Paul Blackledge, D/Phil (1999) York, is the author of Perry Anderson, Marxism and the New Left (2004) and Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History (2006). Neil Davidson is the author of The Origins of Scottish Nationhood (2000) and the Deutscher Prize winning Discovering the Scottish Revolution (2003).
Following Marx book cover
#20

Following Marx

Method, Critique and Crisis

2005

What does it mean to follow Marx? In this examination of Marx’s methodology combined with specific applications on topics in political economy such as neo-Ricardian theory, analytical Marxism, the falling rate of profit, crisis-theory, monopoly-capital, advertising, and the capitalist state, this volume argues that the failure to understand (or the explicit rejection of) Marx’s method has led astray many who consider themselves Marxists. About the Author Michael A. Lebowitz is professor emeritus of Economics at Simon Fraser University. His book, Beyond ‘Capital': Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class was awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 2004. His Build it Now: Socialism for the Twenty-first Century has been republished in several languages.
Witnesses to Permanent Revolution book cover
#21

Witnesses to Permanent Revolution

The Documentary Record

2009

The theory of permanent revolution has long been associated with Leon Trotsky. Though he was the most brilliant of its proponents, these newly translated documents, most of them translated into English for the first time, demonstrate that Trotsky was only one of several leading figures of international Marxism engaged in a debate, sparked by the first Russian Revolution in 1905, about the form workers’ struggle would take in less developed countries. Among the figures included in these discussions were Karl Kautsky, Rosa Luxemburg, Franz Mehring, Parvus, and David Ryazanov.
Criticism of Religion book cover
#22

Criticism of Religion

On Marxism and Theology, II

2009

Offering commentary on the engagements with religion and theology by a range of Marxists, Roland Boer aims to gather insights in order to develop a comprehensive theory of religion. Following the acclaimed Criticism of Heaven, this is the second of a five-volume series called Criticism of Heaven and Earth.
Politics and Philosophy book cover
#23

Politics and Philosophy

Niccolò Machiavelli and Louis Althusser's Aleatory Materialism

1997

Often portrayed as an aloof philosopher, Louis Althusser's work on Niccolo Machiavelli reveals Althusser's deep commitment to political practice. Seeking to challenge the prevailing views on Althusser, Mikko Lahtinen argues that the French thinker cannot be understood from a purely philosophical perspective.
The Gramscian Moment book cover
#24

The Gramscian Moment

Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism

2009

Winner of the Premio internazionale Giuseppe Sormani 2011, awarded by the Fondazione Istituto Piemontese Antonio Gramsci in Turin for the best book/article on Gramsci in the period between 2007-2011 internationally. Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks are today acknowledged as a classic of the human and social sciences in the twentieth century. The influence of his thought in numerous fields of scholarship is only exceeded by the diverse interpretations and readings to which it has been subjected, resulting in often contradictory images of Gramsci. This book draws on the rich recent season of Gramscian philological studies in order to argue that the true significance of Gramsci’s thought exists in its distinctive position in the development of the Marxist tradition. Providing a detailed reconsideration of Gramsci’s theory of the state and concept of philosophy, The Gramscian Moment argues for the urgent necessity of taking up the challenge of developing a “philosophy of praxis” as a vital element in the contemporary revitalisation of Marxism.
Theory as History book cover
#25

Theory as History

Essays on Modes of Production and Exploitation

2010

The essays collected herein deal with the Marxist notion of a "mode of production," the emergence of medieval relations of production, the origins of capitalism, the dichotomy between free and unfree labor, and essays in agrarian history. They demonstrate the importance of reintegrating theory with history and of bringing history back into historical materialism.
Criticism of Theology book cover
#27

Criticism of Theology

On Marxism and Theology III

2010

This title offers commentary on the engagements with religion and theology by a range of Marxist philosophers and critics. The aim is to gather insights in order to develop a comprehensive theory of religion. Following on the heels of the acclaimed Criticism of Religion, this is the third of a five volume series called Criticism of Heaven and Earth
The American Road to Capitalism book cover
#28

The American Road to Capitalism

Studies in Class-Structure, Economic Development and Political Conflict, 1620-1877

2011

Short Listed for the 2011 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize Unable to analyze the dynamics of specific forms of social labour in the antebellum U.S., most historians of the US Civil War have ignored its deep social roots. To search out these roots, Post applies the theoretical insights from the transition debates to the historical literature on the U.S. to produce a new analysis of the origins of American capitalism.
Red October book cover
#29

Red October

Left-Indigenous Struggles in Modern Bolivia

2011

Bolivia witnessed a left-indigenous insurrectionary cycle between 2000 and 2005 that overthrew two presidents and laid the foundation for Evo Morales’ to become the country's first indigenous president. Building on the theoretical traditions of Marxism and indigenous liberation, this book provides an analytical framework for understanding the fine-grained sociological and political nuances of recent Bolivian class-struggle, state-repression, and indigenous resistance.
Monsters of the Market book cover
#30

Monsters of the Market

Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism

2011

Monsters of the Market investigates modern capitalism through the prism of the body panics it arouses. Examining Frankenstein, Marx’s Capital and zombie fables from sub-Saharan Africa, it offers a novel account of the cultural and corporeal economy of global capitalism.
In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg book cover
#31

In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg

2011

Paul Levi remains one of the most interesting and controversial figures in the history of the Communist movement. As leader of the KPD after the murder of Luxemburg and Liebknecht, he successfully built up a party of a third of a million members, but by 1921 Comintern pressure forced Levi’s resignation. This is the first English edition of Levi's writings.
Financialization in Crisis book cover
#32

Financialization in Crisis

2010

The ongoing economic crisis commenced in the sphere of finance, spread to production, and then became a world recession. In this important and timely volume several well-known political economists draw on the insights of Marxist and other heterodox economics to argue that the turmoil of 2007-2009 represents a crisis of financialised capitalism, and is thus systemic.
Discovering Imperialism book cover
#33

Discovering Imperialism

Social Democracy to World War I

2011

Though primarily associated with the most prominent figures in the history of European Marxism—Lenin, Luxemburg, Hilferding, and Bukharin—the theory of imperialism was actually developed through lively and engaged debates within the Second International from 1898–1916. This volume assembles and translates for the first time the main documents from this debate, and features contributions from Karl Kautsky, Parvus, Otto Bauer, Karl Radek, Anton Pannekoek, and Trotsky, among numerous others.
Criticism of Earth book cover
#35

Criticism of Earth

On Marx, Engels and Theology

2012

Criticism of Earth thoroughly reassesses Marx and Engels' engagement with theology, analyzing their collected works for discussions of spiritual matters and the persistence of biblical allusions. What emerges is a continued interest that is maintained throughout their lives, from Marx's Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, until the very end with Engels' treatise on the revolutionary origins of early christianity.
Marx's Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism book cover
#36

Marx's Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism

2012

In contrast to the traditional view that Marx's work is restricted to a critique of capitalism � and that he consciously avoided any detailed conception of its alternative � this work shows that Marx was committed to a specific concept of a post-capitalist society which informed the whole of his approach to political economy.
Gramsci's Political Thought book cover
#38

Gramsci's Political Thought

1989

Focusing on the central concepts of the Prison Notebooks and relating them to the history of modern political ideas, Gramsci's Political Thought demonstrates that Gramsci’s ideas continue to be relevant for understanding today's world. Written by a leading Brazilian Marxist theorist, this book provides one of the most succinct and theoretically focused introductions to Gramsci's thought available in any language.
Marx on Gender and the Family book cover
#39

Marx on Gender and the Family

A Critical Study

2012

This, the first book-length study devoted exclusively to Marx’s perspectives on gender and the family, offers a fresh look at this topic in light of twenty-first century concerns. Although Marx’s writings sometimes exhibit sexism his work often transcends these phrases. Brown studies his writings on gender, as well as his 1879-1882 notebooks on precapitalist societies and gender.
The Ellen Meiksins Wood Reader book cover
#40

The Ellen Meiksins Wood Reader

2012

Ellen Meiksins Wood is a leading contemporary political theorist who has been described as the founder, together with Robert Brenner, of �Political Marxism,’ a distinct version of historical materialism which has inspired a research program that spans a number of academic disciplines. Organized thematically, this Reader provides an overview of her original interpretations of capitalism, and many different topics.
The Meanings of Work book cover
#43

The Meanings of Work

Essay on the Affirmation and Negation of Work

1999

Billions of men and women depend exclusively on their labor to survive. For them work is not a choice, and yet the restructuring of the global economy has forced increasing numbers into unemployment, and eroded the rights and economic gains of those still on the job. What does this increasing precariousness mean for today's labor markets?
Marx's Temporalities book cover
#44

Marx's Temporalities

2012

Rethinking the central categories of Marx's work, this study provides a critical analysis of his political and theoretical development. By integrating the paradigm of the spatialisation of time with that of the temporalisation of space, Tomba shows that an adequate historiographical paradigm for capitalism must consider the plurality of temporal layers that come into conflict in modernity.
Marxism and the Oppression of Women book cover
#45

Marxism and the Oppression of Women

Toward a Unitary Theory

1983

Marxism and the Oppression of Women
Marxism and Social Movements book cover
#46

Marxism and Social Movements

2013

Marxism and Social Movements is the first sustained engagement between social-movement theory and Marxist approaches to collective action. The chapters collected here, by leading figures in both fields, discuss the potential for a Marxist theory of social movements. Exploring struggles on six continents over 150 years, it sets a new agenda both for Marxist theory and for movement research.
Seeing Through the Eyes of the Polish Revolution book cover
#50

Seeing Through the Eyes of the Polish Revolution

Solidarity and the Struggle Against Communism in Poland

2013

In 1980 Polish workers astonished the world by winning an independent union with the right to strike deep inside the Eastern Bloc. Seeing Through the Eyes of the Polish Revolution uses 150 interviews with this struggle's leaders, their supporters, and their opponents to adroitly shows how an opposition was built and eventually forced the Stalinist government from power.
The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-Up of Britain book cover
#51

The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-Up of Britain

2013

In this insightful work Wade Matthews considers the views of Britain's major New Left thinkers—E.P. Thompson, Raymond Williams, Perry Anderson, Stuart Hall, and Tom Nairn—on various 'national questions'. From decolonization to the nationalist implications of Thatcherism, this work charts the continuities and fissures between various New Left perspectives and what has been called 'the break-up of Britain.'
In the Vale of Tears book cover
#52

In the Vale of Tears

On Marxism and Theology, V

2013

In the Vale of Tears brings to a culmination the project for a renewed and enlivened debate over the interaction between Marxism and religion. It does so by offering the author's own response to that tradition. It simultaneously draws upon the rich insights of a significant number of Western Marxists and strikes out on its own. Thus, it argues for the crucial role of political myth on the Left; explores the political ambivalence at the heart of Christianity; challenges the bent among many on the Left to favour the unexpected rupture of kairós as a key to revolution; is highly suspicious of the ideological and class alignments of ethics; offers a thorough reassessment of the role of festishism in the Marxist tradition; and broaches the question of death, unavoidable for any Marxist engagement with religion. While the book is the conclusion to the five-volume series, The Criticism of Heaven and Earth, it also stands alone as a distinct intervention in some burning issues of our time.
Plebeian Power book cover
#55

Plebeian Power

Collective Action and Indigenous, Working-Class and Popular Identities in Bolivia

2007

Plebeian Power is a series of essays by Alvaro Garcia Linera, making available to English readers the Bolivian vice-president's evolving analysis of the nature of the state, class and indigenous identity.
Beyond Marx book cover
#56

Beyond Marx

Theorising the Global Labour Relations of the Twenty-First Century

2013

What might a critique of the political economy of labour look like that critically reviews the experiences of the past five hundred years while moving beyond Eurocentrism? The twenty historical and theoretical essays in this volume discuss this question.
War and Revolution in Catalonia, 1936-1939 book cover
#58

War and Revolution in Catalonia, 1936-1939

2007

In War and Revolution in Catalonia, 1936-1939, Pelai Pagès i Blanch analyses the political and military evolution of the events in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil the street battles that defeated the military rebellion; the social revolution that pervaded all levels of Catalonia's politics, economy, and culture; the gradual erosion of workers' power, culminating in the May Events; and Catalonia's eventual fall to Franco's forces. Pagès i Blanch demonstrates the extent to which the war was lost when the Republican leaders, in order to ‘unify’ the left against Franco and fascism, turned their backs on the social revolution. This translation of Pagès i Blanch's landmark study is the first full-length monograph in English to focus on Catalonia's experience during the war
Gramsci and Languages book cover
#59

Gramsci and Languages

Unification, Diversity, Hegemony

2013

Widely seen as among the most influential Italian thinkers of all time, Antonio Gramsci's highly original Marxism continues to be studied across the globe, even after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Gramsci and Languages offers an explanation of this originality and traces the origins of certain features of Gramsci's political thought by looking at his lifelong interest in language
Dialectics of the Ideal book cover
#60

Dialectics of the Ideal

Evald Ilyenkov and Creative Soviet Marxism

2013

In Dialectics of the Ideal: Evald Ilyenkov and Creative Soviet Marxism Levant and Oittinen provide a window into the subterranean tradition of creative Soviet Marxism and E.V. Ilyenkov, whose activity approach offers an anti-reductionist Marxist theory of the subject.
Time in Marx book cover
#61

Time in Marx

The Categories of Time in Marx’s Capital

2013

Time in Marx demonstrates that the basic concepts of the three volumes of Capital come under different categories of "time of production" in volume one is linear, “time of circulation” in the second is circular, while in the third volume “organic time” is the unity of the two. Capitalist relations emerge as a definite organization of social time that obeys its own intrinsic criteria and operates as an autonomous, social subject.
The Revolutionary Marxism of Antonio Gramsci book cover
#62

The Revolutionary Marxism of Antonio Gramsci

2013

Antonio Gramsci was not only one of the most original and significant communist leaders of his time but also a creative thinker whose contributions to the renewal of Marxism remain pertinent today. In The Revolutionary Marxism of Antonio Gramsci, Frank Rosengarten explores Gramsci's writings in areas as diverse as Marxist theory, the responsibilities of political leadership, and the theory and practice of literary criticism. He also discusses Gramsci's influence on the post-colonial world. Through close readings of texts ranging from Gramsci's socialist journalism in the Turin years to his prison letters and Notebooks, Rosengarten captures the full vitality of the Sardinian communist's thought and outlook on life.
Marx's Capital and Hegel's Logic book cover
#64

Marx's Capital and Hegel's Logic

A Reexamination

2014

This book provides a wide-ranging and in-depth reappraisal of the relation between Marx's economic theory in Capital and Hegel's Logic by leading Marxian economists and philosophers from around the world.
Philosophy After Marx book cover
#65

Philosophy After Marx

100 Years of Misreadings and the Normative Turn in Political Philosophy

2014

Christoph Henning writes a concise history of misreadings of Marx in the 20th century. Focussing on German philosophy from Heidegger to Habermas, he also addresses the influence of Rawls and Neopragmatism, subsequently scrutinizing a previous history of Marx-interpretations that had served as the premises upon which these later works were based. Henning sketches a historical trajectory in which a theory of socialist politics enters the fields of economics, sociology, critical theory and theology, before finally - overloaded with intellectually dead freight - entering into philosophy. In so doing, he takes a hermeneutic approach to how misreadings in a specific field proliferate into further misreadings across a variety of fields, leading to an accumulation of questionable preconceptions. With the recent resurgence of interest in Marx, Henning's historical recursions make evident where and how academic Anti-Marxism had previously got it wrong. English translation of Philosophie nach Marx. 100 Jahre Marxrezeption und die normative Sozialphilosophie der Gegenwart in der Kritik, Transcript-Verlag, Bielefeld, 2005.
Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy book cover
#67

Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy

2014

During the twentieth century the problem of post-revolutionary bureaucracy emerged as the most pressing theoretical and political concern confronting Marxism. No one contributed more to the discussion of this question than Leon Trotsky. In Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy, Thomas M. Twiss traces the development of Trotsky’s thinking on this issue from the first years after the Bolshevik Revolution through the Moscow Trials of the 1930s. Throughout, he examines how Trotsky’s perception of events influenced his theoretical understanding of the problem, and how Trotsky’s theory reciprocally shaped his analysis of political developments. Additionally, Twiss notes both strengths and weaknesses of Trotsky’s theoretical perspective at each stage in its development.
Lenin and the Logic of Hegemony book cover
#72

Lenin and the Logic of Hegemony

Political Practice and Theory in the Class Struggle

2014

In Lenin and the Logic of Hegemony, by means of a careful textual and contextual analysis of the writings of Lenin and his Marxist contemporaries, Alan Shandro traces the contours of the '(anti-) metaphysical event' identified by Gramsci in Lenin's political practice and theory, the emergence of the 'philosophical fact' of hegemony. In so doing, he effectively disputes conventional caricatures of Lenin's role as a political actor and thinker and unearths the underlying parameters of the concept of hegemony in the class struggle. He thereby clarifies the conceptual status of this pervasive but now increasingly elusive notion and the logic of theory and practice at work in it.
The German Left and the Weimar Republic book cover
#75

The German Left and the Weimar Republic

A Selection of Documents

2014

The German Left and the Weimar Republic illuminates the history of the political left by presenting a wide range of documents on various aspects of socialist and communist activity in Germany. Separate chapters deal with the policy of Social Democracy in and out of government, the attempts of the Communist Party to overthrow the Weimar Republic, and then later to support it. Later chapters move away from the political scene to deal with the attitudes of the parties to key social issues, in particular questions of gender and sexuality. The book concludes with a presentation of documents on various groups of socialist and communist dissidents. Many of the documents are made accessible for the first time, and each chapter begins with an original introduction indicating the current state of research.
Money and Totality book cover
#104

Money and Totality

A Macro-Monetary Interpretation of Marx's Logic in Capital and the End of the Transformation Problem

2015

This ambitious book presents a comprehensive new 'macro-monetary' interpretation of Marx's logical method in Capital, based on substantial textual evidence, which emphasises two main (1) Marx's theory is primarily a macroeconomic theory of the total surplus-value produced in the economy as a whole; and (2) Marx's theory is a monetary theory from beginning to end and the circuit of money capital - M - C - M' - is the logical framework of Marx's theory. It follows from this 'macro-monetary' interpretation that, contrary to the prevailing view, there is no 'transformation problem' in Marx's theory; i.e., Marx did not 'fail to transform the inputs of constant capital and variable capital' in his theory of prices of production in Part 2 of Volume III.
Marx and the Earth book cover
#115

Marx and the Earth

An Anti-Critique

2016

A decade and a half ago John Bellamy Foster and Paul Burkett introduced a new, revolutionary understanding of the ecological foundations of Marx's thought, demonstrating that Marx's concepts of the universal metabolism of nature, social metabolism, and metabolic rift prefigured much of modern systems ecology. Ecological relations were shown to be central to Marx's critique of capitalism, including his value analysis. Now in Marx and the Earth Foster and Burkett expand on this analysis in the process of responding to recent ecosocialist criticisms of Marx. The result is a full-fledged anti-critique—pointing to the crucial roles that dialectics, open-system thermodynamics, intrinsic value, and aesthetic understandings played in the original Marxian critique, holding out the possibility of a new red-green synthesis.
Antonio Gramsci book cover
#129

Antonio Gramsci

Towards an Intellectual Biography

1977

Few revolutionaries have a heritage so contested by rival groups as Antonio Gramsci. Many use his writings as ‘sacred texts’ for their own policies, and while others stress any differences with Lenin in order to prove Gramsci a ‘rebel.’ In this stirring biography, Davidson cuts through these sterile debates and instead focuses on Gramsci’s own political and philosophical ideas.
The February Revolution book cover
#149

The February Revolution

Petrograd, 1917

1980

Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel book cover
#200

Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel

Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet

2002

« Nouvel esclavage », « anéantissement des races décadentes », « anéantissement de millions de ratés » : ces mots d’ordre effrayants, formulés de manière séduisante sous la plume de Nietzsche, ont longtemps été interprétés comme autant de métaphores. La reconstruction historique de Domenico Losurdo montre au contraire qu’il s’agit de la radicalisation de tendances bien présentes dans l’Occident de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle : aboli aux États-Unis en 1865, l’esclavage prend des formes nouvelles dans les colonies ; les indiens d’Amérique et les « indigènes » sont décimés ou exterminés ; l’eugénisme se répand et l’on exige la stérilisation forcée des « non aptes ». À partir de la Commune de Paris, Nietzsche prône des mesures énergiques contre les « esclaves » rebelles et appelle à en finir avec non seulement le socialisme, mais aussi la démocratie et l’idée même de progrès, à laquelle il oppose le mythe de l’ « éternel retour » : les esclaves doivent se résigner, leur condition doit rester intangible.
Ethiopia in Theory book cover
#201

Ethiopia in Theory

Revolution and Knowledge Production, 1964-2016

2019

Ethiopia in Theory examines the literature of the Ethiopian student movement of the 1960s in tandem with the movement's afterlife, to reflect on the connection between theory and practice in the context of dramatic social change.
Social Knowledge book cover
#207

Social Knowledge

An Essay on the Nature and Limits of Social Science

1987

Contributors involved in teaching Asia at the undergraduate level place the development of Asian studies programmes in historical context, making a case for their inclusion in the liberal arts curriculum. They consider the challenges faced in developing and sustaining Asian studies programmes.
The Culture of People's Democracy book cover
#421

The Culture of People's Democracy

Hungarian Essays on Literature, Art, and Democratic Transition, 1945-1948

2012

Engaged with questions of realist and modernist world-views in art, the relations of literary history to politics, and the role of cultural intellectuals in public life, this book of essays collects some of Lukács most influential writings. Translated into english for the time, these pieces offer a new look at one of the most significant Marxist thinkers of the twentieth-century.

Authors

Jairus Banaji
Author · 3 books
Jairus Banaji spent most of his academic life at Oxford. He has been a Research Associate in the Department of Development Studies, SOAS, University of London, for the past several years. Banaji's main research interests have included: agrarian history; Late Antiquity and early Islam; historical materialism; Marx's method in Capital; the fate of the peasantry under capitalism; and, unions and industrial relations in India.
Jeffery R. Webber
Jeffery R. Webber
Author · 3 books

Dr Jeffery Webber is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary U. Previously he held an Assistant Professor position in Political Science at the University of Regina, Canada. He has also been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Quito, Ecuador, the Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Laboral y Agrario (CEDLA) and Centro Boliviano de Estudios Multidisicplinarios (CEBEM) in La Paz, Bolivia, and the International Institute for Research and Education in Amsterdam. Over the last few years, he has been invited to speak on Latin American Politics, international relations, and social theory at a number of universities across Europe, North America, and Latin America. Dr Webber's PhD is from the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. His dissertation was entitled “Red October: Left-Indigenous Struggles in Modern Bolivia.” His research interests cut across the disciplines of politics, sociology, international relations, history, and anthropology, with a focus on the following themes: Latin American Political Economy; the Latin American Left (Theory, History, and Practice); Marxism; Imperialism, Hegemony, Empire and Globalisation; Colonialism and Counter-Colonial Struggles; Social Movements, Rebellion, and Revolution; Historical Sociology; and International Political Economy.

Carlos Nelson Coutinho
Carlos Nelson Coutinho
Author · 1 books
Political philosopher, essayist and translator.
Peter Hudis
Peter Hudis
Author · 3 books
Peter Hudis is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Oakton Community College.
Alex Callinicos
Alex Callinicos
Author · 14 books
Alexander Theodore Callinicos, a descendant through his mother of Lord Acton, is a political theorist and Director of the Centre for European Studies at King's College London. He holds both a BA and a DPhil from Oxford University.
Tony Smith
Tony Smith
Author · 5 books
Tony Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State University of Science and Technology
Pierre Broué
Pierre Broué
Author · 3 books
Pierre Broué was a French historian and Trotskyist revolutionary militant whose work covers the history of the Bolshevik Party, the Spanish Revolution and biographies of Leon Trotsky.
Paul Mattick Jr.
Author · 3 books

Paul Mattick Jr. (born 1944) is a Marxist theorist and philosopher. He is the son of council communist theoreticians Paul Mattick Sr. (1904-1981) (author Paul Mattick) and Ilse Mattick (1919-2009). Mattick obtained his PhD from Harvard in 1981, and is currently chair of the Department of Philosophy at Adelphi University in New York. He was previously the editor of the International Journal of Political Economy, and is the author of several books on philosophy of language, aesthetics, and the critique of political economy.

Domenico Losurdo
Domenico Losurdo
Author · 10 books

Domenico Losurdo (14 November 1941 – 28 June 2018) was an Italian Marxist philosopher and historian better known for his critique of anti-communism, colonialism, imperialism, the European tradition of liberalism and the concept of totalitarianism. He was director of the Institute of Philosophical and Pedagogical Sciences at the University of Urbino, where he taught history of philosophy as Dean at the Faculty of Educational Sciences. Since 1988, Losurdo was president of the Hegelian International Association Hegel-Marx for Dialectical Thought. He was also a member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin (an association in the tradition of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's Prussian Academy of Sciences) as well as director of the Marx XXI political-cultural association. From communist militancy to the condemnation of American imperialism and the study of the African-American and Native American question, Losurdo was also a participant in national and international politics.

Jean-Jacques Lecercle
Jean-Jacques Lecercle
Author · 6 books
Jean-Jacques Lecercle is Professor of English at the University of Paris at Nanterre. He has published widely in the fields of philosophy of language and literary theory, and is the author of The Violence of Language, Philosophy of Nonsense, Interpretations of Pragmatics and Deleuze and Language.
Ellen Meiksins Wood
Ellen Meiksins Wood
Author · 10 books

Ellen Meiksins Wood FRSC (April 12, 1942 – January 14, 2016) was an American-Canadian Marxist historian and scholar. From 1967 to 1996, she taught political science at Glendon College, York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With Robert Brenner, Ellen Meiksins Wood articulated the foundations of Political Marxism, a strand of Marxist theory that places history at the centre of its analysis. It provoked a turn away from structuralisms and teleology towards historical specificity as contested process and lived praxis. Meiksins Wood's many books and articles, were sometimes written in collaboration with her husband, Neal Wood (1922–2003). Her work has been translated into many languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Romanian, Turkish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Of these, The Retreat from Class received the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize in 1988. Wood served on the editorial committee of the British journal New Left Review between 1984 and 1993. In 1996, she was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada, a marker of distinguished scholarship. From 1997 to 2000, Wood was an editor, along with Harry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy, of Monthly Review, the socialist magazine.

Michael A. Lebowitz
Author · 6 books
Michael Lebowitz is professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and the author of several books including The Socialist Imperative, The Contradictions of “Real Socialism,” and The Socialist Alternative. He was Director, Program in Transformative Practice and Human Development, Centro Internacional Miranda, in Caracas, Venezuela, from 2006-11.
Álvaro García Linera
Álvaro García Linera
Author · 1 books

Álvaro Marcelo García Linera (born 19 October 1962), is a Bolivian politician who has been Vice President of Bolivia since 2006. He was born in Cochabamba and graduated from San Agustín High School. Then, he studied mathematics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City but did not obtain a degree. After failing his studies at UNAM, he returned to his native Bolivia and attempted to put some of his long-held socialist ideology to practice and joined the Katarist "Ayllus Rojos", a series of experimental, Marxist-inspired native communities in northwestern Bolivia. When this attempt at grass-roots politics failed, García opted for a more radical approach. Alongside Felipe Quispe, he organized and worked in the insurgent Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army. After being caught destroying electrical distribution towers in rural La Paz, he was arrested and charged with insurrection and terrorism. In 1991, along with his brother Raul, he was convicted for theft of $441,000 destined to pay salaries of teachers of a local university (12), to this date, even thought he was found guilty, he continues to pressure the government to return the money that was confiscated from that crime. UMSS, the university affected is also trying to get their money back and get legal action against the Garcia Lineras and their gang. While imprisoned, he studied sociology but did not obtain a degree failing again. After his release he taught at a university illegally since Bolivian universities require their faculty to have a professional degree. He also was a political analyst, and news commentator. He made people think he is an academic, but he does not hold any academic degree, known for his support of indigenous and left-wing political movements in South America (in spite of his upper-middle class upbringing and the fact that he is of Spanish descent). He wrote a monograph about the different political and social organizations that were a part of the political rise of the MAS and other indigenous factions, Sociología de los Movimientos Sociales en Bolivia (Sociology of Social Movements in Bolivia), which was published in 2005.

China Mieville
China Mieville
Author · 38 books

A British "fantastic fiction" writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" (after early 20th century pulp and horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft), and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigons. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party. He has stood for the House of Commons for the Socialist Alliance, and published a book on Marxism and international law. Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Jacques Bidet
Jacques Bidet
Author · 3 books
Jacques Bidet is a French philosopher and social theorist, currently professor emeritus in the Philosophy Department at the Université de Paris X - Nanterre. His most recent translated books are Exploring Marx's Capital: Philosophical, Economic, and Political Dimensions (2007), and A Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism (2007). He wrote the introduction to Louis Althusser's On the Reproduction of Capitalism (2014).
Lise Vogel
Author · 1 books
Lise Vogel is a feminist sociologist and art historian from the United States. An influential Marxist-feminist theoretician, she is recognised for being one of the main founders of the Social Reproduction Theory.
Michael Lowy
Michael Lowy
Author · 14 books
French-Brazilian Marxist sociologist and philosopher. He is presently the emerited research director in social sciences at the CNRS (French National Center of Scientific Research) and lectures at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS; Paris, France). Author of books on Karl Marx, Che Guevara, Liberation Theology, György Lukács, Walter Benjamin and Franz Kafka, he received the Silver Medal of the CNRS in 1994.
Gyorgy Lukacs
Gyorgy Lukacs
Author · 23 books

György Lukács was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, aesthetician, literary historian and critic. He is a founder of the tradition of Western Marxism, an interpretive tradition that departed from the Marxist ideological orthodoxy of the Soviet Union. He developed the theory of reification, and contributed to Marxist theory with developments of Karl Marx's theory of class consciousness. He was also a philosopher of Leninism. He ideologically developed and organised Lenin's pragmatic revolutionary practices into the formal philosophy of vanguard-party revolution. His literary criticism was influential in thinking about realism and about the novel as a literary genre. He served briefly as Hungary's Minister of Culture as part of the government of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic.

Ricardo Antunes
Ricardo Antunes
Author · 3 books
Ricardo Antunes (Ricardo Luiz Coltro Antunes) é Professor Titular de Sociologia no Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UNICAMP. Foi Visiting Research Fellow na Universidade de SUSSEX, Inglaterra. Fez concurso para Titular (2000) e Livre-Docência (1994) no IFCH-UNICAMP, em Sociologia do Trabalho. Doutorou-se em Sociologia, pela USP (1986) e fez Mestrado em Ciência Política no IFCH-UNICAMP (1980). Recebeu o Prêmio Zeferino Vaz da Unicamp (2003) e a Cátedra Florestan Fernandes da CLACSO (20002). É pesquisador do CNPq. Publicou, entre outros, os seguintes livros: Adeus ao Trabalho?, 13 ª ed., Ed. Cortez, publicado também na Itália, Espanha, Argentina, Colômbia e Venezuela; Os Sentidos do Trabalho, Ed. Boitempo, 9ª edição, Boitempo, publicado também na Argentina e Itália; A Desertificação Neoliberal, Ed. Autores Associados. 2ª ed.; A Rebeldia do Trabalho, Ed. da UNICAMP, 2ª edição; O Novo Sindicalismo no Brasil, Ed. Pontes e O que é o Sindicalismo, Ed. Brasiliense. Aualmente coordena as Coleções Mundo do Trabalho, pela Boitempo Editorial e Trabalho e Emancipação, pela Editora Expressão Popular. Colabora regularmente em revistas no exterior e no Brasil. Atua principalmente nos seguintes temas: trabalho, nova morfologia do trabalho, ontologia do ser social, sindicalismo, reestruturação produtiva e centralidade do trabalho.
Colin Barker
Author · 3 books
Colin Barker was a British sociologist as well as a Marxist historian and writer.
Pelai Pagès i Blanch
Pelai Pagès i Blanch
Author · 1 books
Pelai Pagès i Blanch (Sant Pere Pescador, 24 de novembre de 1949) és un professor i historiador català.
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