History of the Left from Marx to the Present: Theoretical Perspectives

There are many ways of presenting the history of the left. In this concise and cogent survey, Darrow Schecter avoids trivializing struggles of the last 150 years, focusing on Marx’s theories and the diverse struggles for human emancipation that have characterized European and world history since the French Revolution.

Each chapter in the book builds on the previous one, analysing the emergence and development of a specifically left wing understanding of the relation between knowledge, left politics, and emancipation. Schecter explores the crucial question of how to institutionalize the relation between humanity and nature in a free society of fully humanized individuals. Including discussions of Marxism, the Frankfurt School, Critical Theory, Anarchism, Surrealism, and Global Anti-Capitalism, The History of the Left from Marx to the Present is a valuable tool for understanding the theories that have helped shape our present-day political world.

Darrow Schecter is Reader in the School of History, Art History and Humanities, University of Sussex, UK. He has written books and articles on social and political thought, including Beyond Hegemony (2005); The History of the Left From Marx to the Present: Theoretical Perspectives (2007), and Critique of Instrumental Reason from Weber to Habermas (2010). He teaches history and political theory at the University of Sussex.