Archive of Western Marxism

A reading list on the relation between Hegel and Marx, two of philosophy's greatest thinkers. All 40% off (print books) and 60% off (ebooks) until January 4th.

Truly terrifying are the sleepless nights when time seems to contract and run fruitlessly through our hands. But what is revealed in such contraction of the hours is the reverse of time fulfilled.

Human beings are forgetting how to give gifts... Real gift-giving had its happiness in imagining the happiness of the receiver. It meant choosing, spending time, going out of one’s way, thinking of the other as a subject: the opposite of forgetfulness. Hardly anyone is still capable of this.

In an interview Alain Badiou considers the possibilities of a politics outside the state and the problem of power

On the 31st August, renowned sociologist and the inaugurator of world-systems analysis Immanuel Wallerstein died aged 88. In this, a seminal late work published here in English for the first time, Wallerstein traces the contours of of the Western left both in the past and its future. In doing so, he raises fundamental questions about the left's relationship with internationalism, and asks how the left can chart a new way forward in the twenty-first century.

On the 31st August, renowned sociologist and the inaugurator of world-systems analysis Immanuel Wallerstein died aged 88. Alongside his monumental four-volume series on The Modern World-System, one of his most influential works was Race, Nation, Class, written in dialogue with Etienne Balibar. In this interview, conducted by Manuela Bojadžijev, Balibar and Wallerstein discuss how the volume came about, and its continuing relevance thirty years later.

In 1977, an intense debate raged in the Greek press between Nicos Poulantzas and Cornelius Castoriadis, sparked by remarks made by Poulantzas in an article that questioned Castoriadis political commitment to ending the dictatorship in Greece, and his position as a high-level economist for the OECD. Here, published in English for the first time, is the record of the debate – published with an introduction by Dimitris Psarras and Dimitris Karidas.

If there is one thing that everyone knows about Louis Althusser, it is that he killed his wife - the sociologist and résistante Hélène Rytmann-Légotien. In this article, William S. Lewis asks how should this fact effect the reception of Althusser's work, and how should those who find Althusser's reconceptualisation of Marx and Marxism usefully respond? 

What is the capitalist democratic state and how should it be confronted? The left has typically seen the state either as an instrument of class rule that needs to be "smashed" or, as with social democracy, as a neutral medium which can be wielded by functionaries with the correct ideas. In this, a series of seven theses on the nature and function of the capitalist state, Michael A. McCarthy argues that both are wrong and that we need a reinvigoration of the late work of Nicos Poulantzas for a full, democratic understanding of the state.