Reconstructing Marxism: Essays on the Explanation and the Theory of History - Softcover

Wright, Erik Olin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0860915549 ISBN 13: 9780860915546

Publisher: Verso, 1992

Synopsis

Reconstructing Marxism explores fundamental questions about the structure of Marxist theory and its prospects for the future. The authors maintain that the disintegration of the old theoretical unity of classical Marxism is in part responsible for what is commonly called the "crisis of Marxism." Only a reconstructed Marxism can come to terms with this disintegration.

Addressing a range of problems in historical materialism and class analysis, the authors compare historical materialism with Darwinian evolutionary theory, and identify what is distinctively "historical" in Marx's theory of history. Through an evaluation of G.A. Cohen's defense and Anthony Giddens's critique of historical materialism they suggest what a plausible, yet still Marxist, theory of history might be. They analyze the relationship of micro-analysis to macro theory and the assignment of causal primacy in explanations, and present a general assessment of the current state of Marxist theory and the prospects for its analytical reconstruction.

Distinguished by the clarity of its presentation, the analytical rigor of its argument and its concern with fundamental philosophical and sociological issues, Reconstructing Marxism advances, at this critical juncture in the history of Marxism, a challenging new research program.

About this title

About the Authors

Erik Olin Wright (1947-2019) was Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He authored many books, including Classes, Interrogating Inequality, Class Counts, Deepening Democracy (with Archon Fung), and Envisioning Real Utopias.

Elliott Sober is Hans Reichenbach Professor and William F. Vilas Research Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Andrew Levine (1944-2021) was Professor in the School of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. For Verso he was the author of The End of the State -A Marxist Reflection on an Idea of Rousseau's (1987), Arguing for Socialism: Theoretical Considerations (1988) and Reconstructing Marxism: Essays on Explanation and the Theory of History, (with Erik Olin Wright and Elliott Sober) (1992).

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0860915549
• ISBN 13: 9780860915546
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216