Althusser: The Dictator Of Theory - Historical Materialism, Volume 13

A critical account of Althusser's contribution to Marxist theory.

Summary

 

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.

Gregory Elliott was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he completed his D.Phil. on Louis Althusser in 1985. An independent translator and writer, his books include Perry Anderson: The Merciless Laboratory of History (1998). His most recent translation is Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello’s The New Spirit of Capitalism(2006)..

 

Product details

• Authors: Gregory Elliott, Elliott Gregory
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.09.2009
• EAN: 9781608460274
• ISBN: 978-1-60846-027-4
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 31 mm
• Weight: 677 g
• Series: Historical Materialism; Historical Materialism Books (
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / General, Politics & government, Politics and government