Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas

By Martin Jay

Book Overview

Totality has been an abiding concern from the first generation of Western Marxists, most notably Luk cs, Korsch, Gramsci, and Bloch, through the second, exemplified by the Frankfurt School, Lefebvre, Goldmann, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Della Volpe, up to the most recent, typified by Althusser, Colletti, and Habermas. Yet no consensus has been reached concerning the term's multiple meanings--expressive, decentered, longitudinal, latitudinal, normative--or its implications for other theoretical and practical matters. By closely following the adventures of this troublesome but central concept, Marxism & Totality offers an unconventional account of the history of Western Marxism.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B004QY9LEC
• ISBN13: 9780520057425
• Release Date: February 1986
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 1.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book on European Intellectual History

While this book seems to be about a rather obscure intellectual concept, in fact it is a book about the european intellectuals in the 20th cent. Jay covers about a dozen marxist, or leftist, philosophers, and clearly explains each author's ideas and places them in an historical context where he uncovers their background and relationships with other thinkers. Its focus is mainly Germany and France with a little Italy, but it gives a real sense of the issues of that period. After reading this book you will actually understand existentism and structuralism.