History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics [Paperback]

Georg Lukács (Author), Rodney Livingstone (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1972 | ISBN-10: 0262620200 | ISBN-13: 978-0262620208 | Edition: MIT Press

This is the first time one of the most important of Lukács' early theoretical writings, published in Germany in 1923, has been made available in English. The book consists of a series of essays treating, among other topics, the definition of orthodox Marxism, the question of legality and illegality, Rosa Luxemburg as a Marxist, the changing function of Historic Marxism, class consciousness, and the substantiation and consciousness of the Proletariat.Writing in 1968, on the occasion of the appearance of his collected works, Lukács evaluated the influence of this book as follows:"For the historical effect of History and Class Consciousness and also for the actuality of the present time one problem is of decisive importance: alienation, which is here treated for the first time since Marx as the central question of a revolutionary critique of capitalism, and whose historical as well as methodological origins are deeply rooted in Hegelian dialectic. It goes without saying that the problem was omnipresent. A few years after History and Class Consciousness was published, it was moved into the focus of philosophical discussion by Heidegger in his Being and Time, a place which it maintains to this day largely as a result of the position occupied by Sartre and his followers. The philologic question raised by L. Goldmann, who considered Heidegger's work partly as a polemic reply to my (admittedly unnamed) work, need not be discussed here. It suffices today to say that the problem was in the air, particularly if we analyze its background in detail in order to clarify its effect, the mixture of Marxist and Existentialist thought processes, which prevailed especially in France immediately after the Second World War. In this connection priorities, influences, and so on are not particularly significant. What is important is that the alienation of man was recognized and appreciated as the central problem of the time in which we live, by bourgeois as well as proletarian, by politically rightist and leftist thinkers. Thus, History and Class Consciousness exerted a profound effect in the circles of the youthful intelligentsia."George Lichtheim, also in 1968, writes that "...The originality of the early Lukács lay in the assertion that the totality of history could be apprehended by adopting a particular 'class standpoint': that of the proletariat. Class consciousness ;not indeed the empirical consciousness of the actual proletariat, which was hopelessly entangled with the surface aspects of objective reality, but an ideal-typical consciousness proper to a class which radically negates the existing order of reality: that was the formula which had made it possible for the Lukács of 1923 to unify theory and practice."

Editorial Reviews

Review

"George Lukacs's History and Class Consciousness is a truly extraordinary work, and its English translation, after almost fifty years of neglect by English and American publishers, is a major event.... The full quality of Lukacs's brilliance is most powerfully manifested in this 'youthful' work (done when merely 38!), where he reveals himself as by far and away the most talented philosopher among 20th-century Marxists, and as their most penetrating critic of contemporary culture.... he is a major stimulus in the development of what is certainly the most creative school of social theorists in the 20th century, and of whom Herbert Marcuse is only the best-known member. For all this, then, we owe homage to Georg Lukacs." Alvin W. Gouldner New York Times Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 404 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; MIT Press edition (November 15, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262620200
• ISBN-13: 978-0262620208
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Root of Critical Theory, April 11, 2000

By 

A Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (Paperback)

The grand and celebrated critiques of capitalistic techno-rationality that emerged from the Frankfurt school are all rooted in the dialectical emphasis of Lukacs. Hegelian notions of reification and alienation that Lukacs resurrected even showed up in radically mutated forms in French poststructuralism. This, as well as Horkheimer's "Dialectic of Enlightenment" are must-reads for New-Left enthusiasts who have neither the time nor the IQ to comprehend raw Hegel. Dialectical thinking is at the root of the philosophies of Hegel, Sartre, Heidegger, Marx, Marcuse, Adorno, Lukacs, Horkheimer, and Neumann, and this book is an excellent introduction to the ontology of capitalism as examined through a whole new cognitive apparatus: dialectical thought.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth Reading Today, April 1, 2011

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Mr. Steiner (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (Paperback)

Lukacs' sordid political history does not entirely overturn this intimidating collection of Marxist essays from the early 20s. With the theoretical exposition of such perplexing notions as "reification" and the "unity of consciousness," Lukacs established much of what was to become critical theory. Despite his disavowed idealism, Lukacs' thinking on the structure of class consciousness is among the most nuanced in the Marxian tradition, and it remains critical to any theoretical understanding of the method of dialectical materialism. While much of his meanderings in "Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat" are poorly structured, one can't help but be excited through his detours into the major intellects of German Idealism. Nevertheless, he fails to give a full explanatory account of the relation between materiality and class consciousness. And as a result, his analysis falls right back into Hegelian Idealism.

11 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars one foot in the class struggle, and one in the ivory tower, August 7, 2006

By 

Phil Myers (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (Paperback)

Lukacs' emphasis here on the importance of the ideological terrain in the class struggle was pathbreaking, and this book contains the fruits of a fine mind absorbed with interest and passion in the socialist cause. However the work is marred by a highly abstract and abstruse style of presentation, a style that would reach baffling lows in the writings of his followers in the Frankfort school.

In these pages, Lukacs scores some palpable hits against the ideological dominance of the bourgoisie, as well as against the opportunism and capitulation of the social democratic forces ascendant in the working class movements of Western Europe after WWI. His early recognition that it is precisely where capitalism is most highly developed that it is most difficult for the working class to organize against it turned Marx's assumptions about the progression of socialism on their head. Lukacs' emphasis on the necessary organic link between theory and forms of movement organization are lucid and welcome. But his failure to follow up on his insights and theorize methods of organization that go beyond Leninist dogma, even where he recognizes the problems involved in democratic-centralist party building, is a gaping weakness.

For those coming to the book out of an interest in the history and practice of socialism, I would recommend sticking to the shorter essays: "The Marxism of Rosa Luxemburg" for its examination of the links between crisis, class consciousness, and conflict; "Class Consciousness", for a relatively succinct presentation of the class struggle in the realm of ideology; and "Legality and Illegality" and "On the Methodology of Organization" for more concrete discussion of communist party practice. Most of the rest of the book consists of belabored and highly abstract philosophical arguments that assume a high level of familiarity with Kant, Hegel, and Marx.