From Marxism to Post-Marxism

In this succinct and panoramic work—both stimulating for the specialist and accessible to the general reader—one of the world’s leading social theorists, Göran Therborn, tackles the question of the trajectory of Marxism in the twentieth century and its legacy for radical thought in the twenty-first. Addressing the history of critical theory from the contemporary vantage-point characterized by postmodernism, post-Marxism and critiques of Eurocentrism, Therborn probes how the recent theoretical currents—including those of Slavoj Zizek, Antonio Negri, and Alain Badiou—have coped with the changed intellectual as well as political and economic contexts. In the light of these discussions, Therborn then proceeds to a global investigation of the parameters of twenty-first century politics. This will become the essential appraisal of Marxism in the modern age.

Praise for Between Sex and Power

“A great work of historical intellect and imagination. It is the fruit of a rare combination of gifts.” — The Nation

“This is a deeply impressive book by a major sociologist, original and mostly persuasive in its historical analysis and remarkable in its survey of the global marital and sexual scene.” — Eric Hobsbawm, London Review of Books

Göran Therborn holds the Chair of Sociology at the University of Cambridge, and is editor and author of, respectively, Inequalities of the World, Asia and Europe in Globalization, and Between Sex and Power: Family in the World, 1900–2000. His classic What Does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules? is forthcoming from Verso in the Radical Thinkers series.