Althusser and the Renewal of Marxist Social Theory

The writings of the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser and his associates have figured prominently in the development of contemporary social theory. The Althusserian school of Structural Marxism and Modernism, which has produced a large body of work that extends across the human sciences and the humanities to engage a wide variety of cultures, theoretical problems and political issues. Despite the fact that Althusser himself is widely recognized as a major figure, the breadth, coherence and achievements of Structural Marxism as a whole have gone largely unrecognized. The author provides a comprehensive and thematic introduction to the work of Althusser, Nicos Poulantzas, Pierre Macherey, Etienne Balibar, Emmanuel Terray, Terry Eagleton, Goran Therborn, Renee Balibar, Perry Anderson, Pierre-Philippe Rey, Michel Pechaux, Guy Bois and others. Resch’s study demonstrates the enormous significance of Althusser’s modernist renewal of Marxist and social theory and its ongoing challenge to post-Marxist movements such as post-modernism and neo-liberalism.