Overview
"Marxism is over," writes Ronald Aronson in a profoundly moving work that describes, explains, and mourns the end of the modern world's great project of social transformation. The book combines autobiographical and historical narrative, history of ideas, as well as philosophical and historical argument to make sense of what it means to work for radical change in a post-Marxist era. Bidding farewell to the Marxian project without rejecting its insights and experience, this inspiring volume demonstrates new ways of conceiving radical thought and action.In a sustained dialogue with postmodernism, Aronson clearly demonstrates that Marxism reflected, and was appropriate to, the early modern period and its attitudes. However, he argues, today the world demands a project of radical change that acknowledges how much we have lost and gained since Marxism's heyday. We no longer have Marxism's sense of historical self-confidence, its reverence for science, its faith in objective processes, or its universality. Aronson shows how any contemporary radical project must begin after Auschwitz, after Communism, and after Progress, based on the premise that we are on our own without a single coherent world view to serve as our foundation.
Courageously candid yet deeply hopeful, After Marxism illustrates what can be learned not only from the "end of Marxism" but also from the victories Marxism achieved over past generations of struggle. The book offers inspiration for the long effort toward future social change.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"With this book Ronald Aronson makes a brave and lucid contribution to the assessment of the central event in the intellectual life of our time--the complex disabling of Marxism as social politics and as a working ethos. The account he gives of his personal political odyssey is a fine example of this kind of reflection, and his readings of Adorno, Foucault, and other actors in late Marxism are insightful. For those engaged in the collective effort to define a postMarxist democratic radicalism, After Marxism will constitute a solid tool and touchstone." --Norman Rush, author of Mating"Aronson is an engaging, down-to-earth guide to left-wing theory in the post-Marxist era. After convincingly putting Marx in his place in the museum of noble ideas, he introduces a challenging array of contemporary radical thinkers. Throughout, he makes it clear that after Marx' there are still revolutions to launch and worlds to win." --Barbara Ehrenreich, author of The Worst Years of Our Lives
"This is not a sectarian book by an author with an axe to grind. On the contrary, it strikes me as a painfully honest work by someone openly searching for his bearings in a changed world...Aronson remains sympathetic to the Marxism he leaves behind, taking with him the still usefull elements of its theoretical apparatus and its utopian vision of the future." --Stephen L. Newman, York University
"Thought-provoking....Its account of Marxism is both useful and accessible to students." --Jean-Pierre Boule, Nottingham Trent University, UK
"....Aronson's engaged and wide-ranging book combines a critical analysis of Marxism, a personal-political autobiography, and an outline of a new radical project...." --Moishe Postone, Contemporary Sociology
"...this work, from a resolutely leftist author who is evidently pained by his own intellectual conclusions, presents a powerful challenge to anyone still laying claim to the title of Marxist." --Terry Eagleton, Fadical Philosophy 82