The Sociology of Marx

Henri Lefebvre

Feb 2015 · Sold by Pantheon

About this ebook

The crucial importance of Karl Marx’s thought for his own time and for ours is beyond dispute, but the there have always been two considerable impediments to understanding: first, the supposed complexity with which Marx articulated his ideas; second, the accretions which commentators, disciples, and hagiographers have built into the original structure. Henri Lefebrve, who has held the chair in sociology at Strasbourg and since 1965 in Paris, has written an interpretative introduction which restores the clarity of outline and the vigor of the original. Lefebrvre also demonstrates by ample quotation that Marx, far from being the tortuous and intractable stylist we had imagined, is a masterful and witty writer.
 
But beyond this, the reader is presented with a thesis. Lefebvre argues that Marx was not a sociologist, not an economist, not yet an historian or a philosopher. On the other hand, one can find in his writings a sociology, a political economy, a theory of history, and significant intimations of a philosophy. The explanation of this apparent paradox lies in the fact that Marx was writing in a period prior to the compartmentalizing of science, when the nature of things could still be grasped as a whole. Thus, through Marx, we can obtain a coherent picture of reality as it was at the inception of the modern age. An understanding of Marx is necessary for an understanding of our time. This book is indispensible not only as a guide to Marx, but for its sight into contemporary problems.

About the author

Henri Lefebvre was born in Hagetmau, France, in 1901. He received his Licence de philosophie from Aix-en-Provence in 1918, and his Deplôme d’études supérieures de philosophie from the Sorbonne in the following year. From 1948 to 1961 he worked for the Centre national de la recherché scientifique. In 1961 he was appointed to the chair of sociology at Strasbourg University. Currently he holds the chair of sociology in the Faculté des Lettres et Sciences humaines at Nanterre.
 
Professor Lefebvre has written extensively on Marx and Marxism. Among his previous writings are Marx et la liberté (1947); Pour connaître la pensée de Marx and Le marxisms (1948); Les problémes actiels du marxisme (1958); and Marx philosophe (1964). First published in France in 1966, The Sociology of Marx is his first work to appear in English.