In this classic study, which won the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize, Ellen Wood provides a survey of influential trends in contemporary Marxist theory. Identifying a common trend to dissociate political analysis from class interest, she pursues her own conception of the complex but undeniable relations between class, politics and ideology.

In a new introduction, Wood discusses the relevance of The Retreat From Class in a post-Soviet world. She locates post-Marxism as a predecessor to current academic trends such as postmodernism, and argues that a re-examination of class politics by academia is one way out of the current, cynical acceptance of capitalism.

Ellen Meiksins Wood teaches in the Political Science Department at York University, Ontario. She is the author of Peasant-Citizen and Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy and The Pristine Culture of Capitalism, The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View, and Empire of Capital, all from Verso.

160 pages

Verso Classics

Paper
1 85984 270 4
£12 / US$16 / CAN$24