Post-Marxism: An intellectual history

Post-Marxism is now a well-established theoretical position concerned with rescuing aspects of Marxist thought from the collapse of Marxism as a global, cultural and political force. Marxism has now generally come to be regarded as a discredited system of thought, carrying with it a burden of authoritarianism and totalitarianism which is at odds with the current commitment to cultural pluralism and libertarianism. This book traces the crystallisation of post-Marxism as a specific theoretical position in its own right, and considers the role played in its development by post-structuralism, postmodernism and second-wave feminism. It examines the history of dissenting tendencies within the Marxist tradition, stretching from Rosa Luxemburg, through the Frankfurt school to recent theorists such as Barry Hindness, Paul Hirst and Rudolf Bahro, and considers what the future prospects of post-Marxism are likely to be.