new book
I am happy to have ordered this book from this book seller. It came in time and good copy. I had ordered a new book and I got a new book.
cuts through the smoke
pellucid, even. clear and concise. a return to marx, away from marxism. this would be the perfect text to use at the end of a course on marx(ism)-- subsumes all other critiques whilst returning to the original texts themselves. if that does convince you: it's a cheap and easy read! buy it now! (plus, cool cover art).
Invaluably lucid
Verso's decision to republish this book should be lauded. For the better part of a decade in the late '90s and '00s they allowed it to languish in out-of-print obscurity; it deserved a better fate, as this is a very useful classroom text.
This is simply the best introduction available to the issues and texts of Marxism for the contemporary student of continental philosophy or "theory." Balibar is astonishing in his brevity and his lucidity when summarizing a hundred and fifty years of Marxist thought on issues such as ideology and false consciousness, time and history, class struggle and dialectics. The main text is organized in about five brief chapters on themes such as these. Page-length boxes set into the text expand on key issues, texts, and sources -- from the "three sources of Marx's thought" to the Theses on Feuerbach -- and provide capsule biographies of important Marxist writers from Gramsci to Lukács to Lenin. It's also a terrific reference -- if Balibar's text is sometimes too dense for an introductory-level student to read quickly, its density helps it retain interest and utility for the more sophisticated reader. There is no other book like this one, and it should be embraced.
A Provocative Introduction
Balibar's little book is suited for newcomers, to Marx and philosophy, and for those who are familiar with both and are just looking to have a little life blown into those dead bones. Balibar's intent is to argue for current relevance of Marx's thought, while at the same time destroying all of the dogmatic ideas of "Marxist philosophy." Balibar reanimates Marx's thought by outlining the series of problems that it poses.
