Althusser
eBook - ePub

Althusser

The Detour of Theory

  1. 368 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Althusser

The Detour of Theory

About this book

In the international renaissance of Marxist theory during the 1960s and early 1970s few projects generated as much excitement or controversy as Louis Althusser's 'return to Marx'. One of the most ambitious enterprises in the post-war history of Marxism, Althusser's reconstruction of Marx's doctrine was heralded as a new start in some quarters, dismissed as a refurbished Stalinism in others.

Today, more than twenty years after the appearance of his major works and amidst the profound contemporary crisis of Marxism, Althusser is the victim, rather than the beneficiary, of philosophical fashion. Paradoxically, the oblivion into which he has now fallen affords the opportunity fora return to Althusser: a reassessment that advances beyond the unconsidered responses that Marxist commentators have often given to his work.

In this first full-scale study in English of Althusser's career, Gregory Elliott draws on a wide range of untranslated material, surveying the political and intellectual context of Althusser's initiative in For Marx and Reading Capital. He analyses the nature of the Marxism developed in these works and charts their author's subsequent evolution, concluding with a balance-sheet of the French Marxist's contribution to historical materialism.

At once sympathetic and critical Althusser: The Detour of Theory will establish itself as the standard introduction to its subject.

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Yes, you can access Althusser by Gregory Elliott in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Halftitle Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Foreword
  8. 1. The Moment of Althusser
  9. 2. A Recommencement of Dialectical Materialism
  10. 3. Returning to Marx? A Reconstruction of Historical Materialism
  11. 4. The Time of Theory, The Time of Politics
  12. 5. Questions of Stalinism
  13. 6. The Eclipse of Althusserianism
  14. Conclusion: Unfinished History
  15. Notes
  16. Bibliography of the Writings of Louis Althusser
  17. Index