Ebook: Althusser: A Critical Reader

Philosopher-general of the generation of May 1968, Louis Althusser was one of the most complex—and certainly the most controversial intellectuals to emerge from Paris in the 1960s. His work remains a vital element in the still shifting map of contemporary philosophical and cultural critique.

This volume, following the English-language publication of Althusser's autobiography, The Future Lasts a Long Time, assesses the enduring importance and influence of 'Althusserianism', both in relation to, and far beyond, the controversies of his political career and the traumatic events of his personal biography.

This book situates Althusser and his texts within the wider histories and cultures to which they belong, drawing on contributors from a wide range of backgrounds and geographical locations. Contributors include E. J. Hobsbawm Pierre Vilar, Paul Ricoeur, Axel Honneth, Peter Dews, David Macey, Francis Mulhern and Gregory Elliott.

Louis Althusser was born in Algeria in 1918 and died in France in 1990. He taught philosophy for many years at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, and was a leading intellectual in the French Communist Party. His books include For Marx; Reading Capital (with Étienne Balibar); Essays in Ideology; Politics and History: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Marx; Machiavelli and Us; and The Spectre of Hegel.

Gregory Elliott is a Visiting Fellow at Newcastle University. His books include Ends in Sight (Pluto, 2008), Perry Anderson: The Merciless Laboratory of History (1998) and Althusser: The Detour of Theory (2nd edition, 2006).