Author: István Mészáros
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
ISBN: 978-1-58367-208-2
Publication Date: 2010
Trade paperback
218 pages

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• Foreword by John Bellamy Foster
  Introduction by Richard Antunes
  Chapter One: The Unfolding Crisis and the Relevance of Marx

About this book

“The Pathfinder” of 21st Century Socialism. —Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela referring to István Mészáros Miraflores Palace, September 10, 2001

“For me, István Mészáros is one of the few people who has made essential contributions to the body of Marxist thought. Like Marx, he is not easy to read, but he is definitely worth the effort.” —Michael A. Lebowitz, author of Build It Now

“If everyone had the spirit of István Mészáros, that is, if everyone were…so mindful of the totality and the future, so fierce in opposition, so faithful to the exploited and oppressed, and so hopeful for a better world, then such a world would be in closer reach.” —Joel Kovel

In this collection of trenchant essays and interviews, István Mészáros, the world’s preeminent Marxist philosopher and winner of the Libertador Award for Critical Thought (the Bolivar Prize) for 2008, lays bare the exploitative structure of modern capitalism. He argues with great power that the world’s economies are on a social and ecological precipice, and that unless we take decisive action to radically transform our societies we will find ourselves thrust headfirst into barbarism and environmental catastrophe.

István Mészáros left his native Hungary after the Soviet invasion of 1956. He is professor emeritus at the University of Sussex, where he held the Chair of Philosophy for fifteen years. Mészáros is author of The Challenge and Burden of Historical Time, Beyond Capital, The Power of Ideology, The Work of Sartre, and Marx’s Theory of Alienation.
 

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