The Right to Be Lazy: And Other Writings

Paul Lafargue,Alex Andriesse

The Right to Be Lazy: And Other Writings
Format
Paperback
Publisher
The New York Review of Books, Inc
Country
United States
Published
15 November 2022
Pages
200
ISBN
9781681376820

The Right to Be Lazy: And Other Writings

Paul Lafargue,Alex Andriesse

Now in a new translation, a classic nineteenth-century defense for the cause of idleness by a revolutionary writer and activist (and Karl Marx’s son-in law) that reshaped European ideas of labor and production.

Exuberant, provocative, and as controversial as when it first appeared in 1880, Paul Lafargue’s The Right to Be Lazy is a call for the workers of the world to unite-and stop working so much! Lafargue, Karl Marx’s son-in-law (about whom Marx once said, If he is a Marxist, then I am clearly not ) wrote his pamphlet on the virtues of laziness while in prison for giving a socialist speech. At once a timely argument for a three-hour workday and a classical defense of leisure, The Right to Be Lazy shifted the course of European thought, going through seventeen editions in Russia during the Revolution of 1905 and helping shape John Maynard Keynes’s ideas about overproduction. Published here with a selection of Lafargue’s other writings-including an essay on Victor Hugo and a memoir of Marx-The Right to Be Lazy reminds us that the urge to work is not always beneficial, let alone necessary. It can also be a strange madness consuming human lives.

This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in approx 2 weeks

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.