The Making of a Marxist Philosopher: A Memoir (Marx and Marxisms)

The Making of a Marxist Philosopher is a revealing and beautifully written memoir and family history from renowned Marxist philosopher Sean Sayers. His father was the son of a Jewish-Irish businessman who was a friend of Michael Collins and other leaders in the Irish struggle for independence. He became a writer who was given his first job by T. S. Eliot, shared a flat with George Orwell, went to America and was blacklisted under McCarthyism. Sean’s mother was the American-born daughter of a world famous Italian American anarchist. She became a communist and lived and worked in China. Sean was born in New York and grew up in London. He studied philosophy in Cambridge and Oxford Universities in the 1960s and has become an internationally known Marxist philosopher. As one of the founders of the journal Radical Philosophy and the creator of the Marx and Philosophy Review of Books , Sayers has been at the centre of the development of philosophy on the left in the English-speaking world during the past fifty years. Reflecting on the fate of Marxism in an engaging, thoughtful way, The Making of a Marxist Philosopher is filled with revealing family photographs which Sayers uses to craft an original must-read on left-wing thought and politics. Cover Endorsements Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents List of figures Dramatis personae – family members Preface Acknowledgements PART I: Family and Childhood 1. Family 2. Childhood 3. Family Life Bibliography PART II: Growing Up 4. School 5. Being an American 6. Cambridge 7. Oxford Bibliography PART III: Work and Adult Life 8. The University of Kent 9. Radical Philosophy 10. Working at Kent 11. Living and Working Abroad 12. Writing and Thought Bibliography PART IV: Later Life 13. Retirement 14. China Again 15. Family History Bibliography Appendix: Analytical and Continental Philosophy Index