Schmidt: ∗history∗ & Structure: An Essay On Hegeli An Marxist & Struct Theory Of Hist (cloth): Essays on Hegelian-Marxist and Structuralist Theories of History - Hardcover

SCHMIDT

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262191989 ISBN 13: 9780262191982

Publisher: MIT Press, 1981

Synopsis

The principal theme of the book is the fundamental problem of Marxist studies: the development of a theory of history that is an "epistemological reflection of materialist historical thought" and from which a rigorous methodology can evolve. In particular, Schmidt advances a view of history that reaffirms the reality and value of the actual content of historical experience. In the first half of the book, Schmidt returns to the historical texts of Hegel and Marx, and presents an original and suggestive account of Marx's appropriation of Hegel, and most importantly, of the concept of "dialectical mediation" of logic and history. These sections focus on the perennial opposition of "logic," "theory," "system", and (more recently) "structure," on the one hand, and "history-as-narrative" on the other, and argue that holding with only one side of this opposition--either structure without history or history without structure--is unfaithful to Marx and also makes for inadequate history. The final half of the book presents the opposing sides of the current debate between the two most influential streams of Marxist theory--structuralism vs. critical theory--and enters the debate by outlining the critical-theoretic arguments against the structuralists and what Schmidt sees as the modern loss of the sense of history and historical consciousness, as well as by appropriating for Marxist historiography what is of value in structuralism. This debate is given concrete form through the discussion of the writings of the French structuralist Louis Althusser and of the dialectically contradictory outlook of Antonio Gramsci.

About this title

Review

"Schmidt, one of the leading commentators on the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, defines a theory of history that is an epistemology of materialist historical thought. Dividing his study into two parts, he deals in the first half with historical texts of Hegel and Marx; he posits that Marx's work is at the same time theory and epistemology, and he supports his arguments by references to Horkheimer, Adorno, Feuerbach, and others. His defense of the Hegelian concept of 'dialectical mediation' of logic and history is particularly persuasive. In the second half of the book, Schmidt attacks Althusserian and other structuralists' theories, but appropriates part of them. Well-written, clear and informed, the study does much to clarify the present discourse between the Frankfurt School's critical theorists and the structuralisms." The Antioch Review "Schmidt quietly and convincingly settles accounts with Althusser's structuralism; this is a scrupulous addition to the recent literature on Marxism. Russell Jacoby

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262191989
• ISBN 13: 9780262191982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128