Jacobin Radio14 Mai 2020

Casualties of History: "Are We Not Always in an Exceptional Situation?"

With guest Asad Haider, we discuss at length the theoretical polemic of E.P. Thompson against Louis Althusser. What was the historical context for each side of this conflict (in which Althusser never participated directly)? What was Thompson’s critique? Asad argues that Thompson did not understand Althusser correctly, or even provide a satisfactory conceptual account of what was best about his own empirical research. The two, may have been closer to each other than Thompson understood. A humanist, he preferred the young Marx; Althusser, an anti-humanist, argued systematically for the importance of the mature Marx. Both, however, were reacting to the Stalinist ossification of their respective national Communist parties.

Readings discussed in this episode:

Louis Althusser, For Marx

https://www.versobooks.com/books/35-for-marx

Louis Althusser, “Contradiction and Overdetermination” (from For Marx)

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1962/overdetermination.htm

Louis Althusser, Etienne Balibar, Roger Establet, Pierre Macherey, and Jacques Rancière, Reading Capital

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2042-reading-capital

Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm

Perry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis”

https://newleftreview.org/issues/I23/articles/perry-anderson-origins-of-the-present-crisis

Perry Anderson, Arguments Within English Marxism

https://www.versobooks.com/books/576-arguments-within-english-marxism

Asad Haider, Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump https://www.versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity

Karl Marx, Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/appx1.htm

E.P. Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English”

https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1965/english.htm

E.P. Thompson, “An Open Letter to Leszek Kolakowski” https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1973/kolakowski.htm

E.P. Thompson, “The Poverty of Theory:Or, An Orrery of Errors” https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1978/pot/intro.htm

E.P. Thompson, “Outside the Whale”

https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1978/outside-whale.htm

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