A Marx for our times : Adventures and misadventures of a critique

The end of Soviet Socialism signalled to some observers that the ghost of Marx had finally been laid to rest. But history’s refusal to grind to a halt and the global credit crisis that began in 2008 have rekindled interest in capitalism’s most persistent critic. Written during the mid-nineties, a period of Western complacency and neo-liberal reaction, __Marx for Our Times__ is a critical reading of dialectical materialism as a method of resistance. Without denying the contradictory character of Marx’s thought, and with a sensitivity to the plurality of theories it has inspired, Daniel Bensaid sets out to discover what in Marx remains dynamic and relevant in our era of accelerating economic change. Marx’s theory emerges, not as a doctrinal system, but as an intellectual tool of social struggle and global transformation in a world where capital continues to dominate social relations. “__Marx for Our Times__ is a sign of the vitality of heterodox Marxist thought at a time when the legitimacy of capitalism is once again coming under challenge.”—Alex Callinicos “The result of a long process of research, this book offers us an analysis of the thought of Marx and of its relevance which should be considered as a new landmark, and which opens up new perspectives and polemics which will no doubt continue to live on for some time.”—__Le Monde__ **Daniel Bensaïd** (1946–2010) taught philosophy at the University of Paris VIII, and was the author of books on Marxism, Walter Benjamin, the French Revolution and Joan of Arc. The Marxists’ Internet Archive has a [list of obituaries](http://www.marxists.org/archive/bensaid/obits/index.htm). **Gregory Elliott** is a member of the editorial collective of __Radical Philosophy__ and author of __Althusser: The Detour of Theory__ and __Labourism and the English Genius: The Strange Decay of Labour England?__. This title presents a brilliant defense of the continuing relevance of Marx's thought for understanding today's global political economy. The French philosopher Daniel Bensaid shows that Marx's 'critique of political economy' encompassed three great critiques of the scientific and political canons of its age - historical reason, sociological rationality and scientific positivism. We find here a 'post-postmodern Marx', inhabiting a contemporary world replete with contingency, crisis and contradiction - ensuring that this nineteenth-century thinker is relevant to the twenty-first century of global capitalism Presents a defense of the relevance of Marx's thought for understanding global political economy. This title shows that Marx's 'critique of political economy' encompassed three great critiques of the scientific and political canons of its age - historical reason, sociological rationality and scientific positivism.

reveals The 'post-modern Marx' To Show That This Nineteenth-century Thinker Is Relevant To The Twenty-first Century Of Global Capitalism.