Ideology & Superstructure in Historical Materialism

Ideology and Superstructure was written at a time - in the inter-war years - when Marxism existed almost entirely in its Stalinst form. Franz Jakubowski set out to reintroduce the centrality of the Hegelian dialectic into Marx's method and to elaborate the concept of praxis.

In the same period, only Lukacs and Korsch attempted to deal systemically with these problems, and it is they who are generally recognised as the main inspiration behind what is called Western Marxism, yet Franz Jakubowski is a key figure in the development of Marxist thought. And, unlike the others, Jakubowski was also an activist, and for this reason avoids the unnecessarily dense language of his fellow theoreticians.

Ideology and Superstructure is rare in that it successfully conveys complex problems in a simple and straightforward form. At a time when the literature on Marx has become excessively obscuranist, Jakubowski's work serves as a useful antidote, and is an ideal text for introducing novices to the basics of Marxist theory.

Author: Franz Jakubowski
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
Published: 06/20/1990
Pages: 160
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.47lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.38d
ISBN: 9780745303895

About the Author
Franz Jakubowski (1912-70) was an activist and a contributor to Marxist thought. Jakubowski examined Marx and Engels' turn to towards historical materialism and critiqued Karl Korsch and Karl Kautsky. After abandoning Europe in the late 1930s for the USA Jakubowski set up the Alexander Herzen Foundation, which published samizdat soviet literature.

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