The theory of alienation occupies a significant place in the work of Marx and has long been considered one of his main contributions to the critique of bourgeois society. Many authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have erroneously based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, by contrast, Marcello Musto has concentrated his selection on the most relevant pages of Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were far more extensive and detailed than those of the early philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his description of communist society. This comprehensive rediscovery of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an indispensable critical tool for both understanding the past and the critique of contemporary society.

The author draws on lesser known archival materials, including Marx's notebooks on women and patriarchy and technology to offer a new interpretation of Marx's concept of alienation as this concept develops in his later works.

A critical introduction to Marx's social, political and economic thought that stresses the relevance and importance of many of the philosopher's theories. It can be considered a standard basic reference work for the study of Marx in conjunction with the author's companion selection of Marx's writings, Karl Marx: A Reader.

Revised throughout with an entirely new chapter, "In Defense of Internal Relations," and with replies to critical comments on the 1st edition, which the N.Y. Review of Books called "a remarkable book...brilliant and illuminating."

"Originally published in French in 1961, this book is one of the standard works on the question of alienation in Marx. In his study of Marx and the role of technology in the modern world, Kostas Axelos interprets Marx from his own distinctive, thought-provoking, philosophical position. Made available now in the translation by Ronald Bruzina, the book provides a meaningful interpretation of Marx and an introduction to Axelos's own philosophical thought" -- Book jacket.

The theory of alienation occupies a significant place in the work of Marx and has long been considered one of his main contributions to the critique of bourgeois society. Many authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have erroneously based their interpretations on Marx's early writings. In this anthology, by contrast, Marcello Musto has concentrated his selection on the most relevant pages of Marx's later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were far more extensive and detailed than those of the early philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx's critique of capitalism, but also his description of communist society. This comprehensive rediscovery of Marx's ideas on alienation provides an indispensable critical tool for both understanding the past and the critique of contemporary society. Marcello Musto is Professor of Sociology at York University, Toronto, Canada, and has published worldwide in more than twenty languages. Among his most recent edited books there are Marx's Capital after 150 Years: Critique and Alternative to Capitalism (2019), and The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Interpretations (2020). He is the author of Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (2018), and The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography (2020).

This book considers Karl Marx’s ideas in relation to the social and political context in which he lived and wrote. It emphasizes both the continuity of his commitment to the cause of full human emancipation, and the role of his critique of political economy in conceiving history to be the history of class struggles. The book follows his developing ideas from before he encountered political economy, through the politics of 1848 and the Bonapartist “farce,”, the maturation of the critique of political economy in the Grundrisse and Capital, and his engagement with the politics of the First International and the legacy of the Paris Commune. Notwithstanding errors in historical judgment largely reflecting the influence of dominant liberal historiography, Marx laid the foundations for a new social theory premised upon the historical consequences of alienation and the potential for human freedom.