The Politics of Historical Vision : Marx, Foucault, Habermas Critical Perspectives (New York, N.Y.)

Providing an important contribution to current controversies regarding history, social theory,politics, and the Foucault\n-\Habermas debates, this work offers a detailed comparison of the transformative uses of history in Foucault and Habermas, using Marx as a modernist contrast. The book clearly illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of each thinker's theory for the productive analysis of history and society, relating the work of each to current debates over modern and postmodern theory. This work offers a detailed comparison of the historical visions of both Foucault and Habermas, using Marx as a modernist contrast. The book clearly illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of each thinker's theory for the productive analysis of history and society, relating the work of each to current debates over modern and postmodern theory. While Steven Best engages these debates throughout the book, he challenges the claim that there are sharp lines of difference between the modern and the postmodern. Instead, he argues that the differences between Foucault and Habermas, both in relation to each other and to Marx, are best understood as competing responses within modern theory itself - responses that attempt to articulate Hegelian and Nietzschean visions of history. Avoiding partisan defenses of one theorist over another, Best shows that the problems of each are illuminated through the perspectives of the others. "A notably fair-minded yet critical and comparative review of key ideas of Marx, Foucault, and Habermas ... Will elicit favorable comparison with several recent publications on the Habermas-Foucault debate". -- Choice "Foucault and Habermas are the two towering figures of contemporary social theory. Steven Best presents a penetrating, lucid, and persuasive account of how their theories are relevant to contemporary intellectual and political needs". -- Richard Wolin, Rice University "A unique and worthwhile argument ... Best's clarity of writing logical strengths, and fairn Providing an important contribution to current controversies regarding history, social theory, politics, and the Foucault - Habermas debates, this work offers a detailed comparison of the transformative uses of history in Foucault and Habermas, using Marx as a modernist contrast. The book clearly illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of each thinker's theory for the productive analysis of history and society, relating the work of each to current debates over modern and postmodern theory. Karl Marx lived and wrote during what he understood to be the most momentous social transformation in the history of humanity - the emergence of capitalist modernity.