Alex Callinicos Bücher

Der neoliberale Weg zur Marktgesellschaft führt nicht in die Zukunft, sondern zurück ins 19. Jahrhundert. Im „reifen Kapitalismus“ ist die Welt weder harmonischer, gerechter noch friedlicher geworden. Deshalb ist dies die richtige Zeit für eine erneute Lektüre seines wichtigsten Kritikers, Karl Marx. Dieser hat auf bisher unübertroffene Weise die Mechanismen der kapitalistischen Gesellschaft untersucht und erklärt. Seit den 1990er Jahren ist eine antikapitalistische Linke wiedererstarkt. In all ihren verschiedenen Widerstandsformen ist der ungeheure Drang nach Freiheit angelegt – nach echter Freiheit, nicht nach jener vom Kapitalismus angebotenen Falschmünze, mit der Freiheit gekauft und verkauft wird. Mehr als jeder andere stellte Marx den Mangel an realer Freiheit fest und erkannte die Kräfte, durch die wir uns befreien können. Marx war dabei immer Verfechter der Selbstbefreiung, kein Vertreter der Tyrannei. Auch für Einsteiger verständlich, zeugt Alex Callinicos' Einführung gleichzeitig von gebotener Tiefe und intellektueller Schärfe. Mit den angeführten Originalzitaten von Marx ist das Buch auch ein guter Wegweiser durch seine Schriften.

Wie sollten sich Marxistinnen und Marxisten zu nationalen Befreiungsbewegungen verhalten? In der Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung wurde lange über dieses Verhältnis diskutiert. Die Textsammlung wirft einen Blick zurück und stellt heraus, wie Marx, Engels, Lenin, Luxemburg und Trotzki die Diskussionen um die nationale Frage führten.

The second edition of this remarkably lucid text offers a comprehensive historical introduction to social theory, enhancing its clarity, reliability, and scholarship. It covers a wide range of theorists, including Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Hegel, Marx, Tocqueville, and many others, examining how social theory emerged from the Enlightenment. During this period, Western societies shifted from relying on tradition to seeking scientific knowledge for validation. The text explores the connections between social theory, modern philosophy, political economy, and the influence of evolutionary biology on social thought. Carefully updated, the book engages with contemporary debates in social theory and concludes with a substantial new chapter assessing the significance of globalization. It addresses the resurgence of critiques of capitalism and imperialism, highlighting the work of theorists like Michael Hardt, Toni Negri, and Slavoj Zizek. This updated edition is essential reading for students of politics, sociology, and social and political thought, providing insights into the evolution and current discussions within social theory.

Exploring the intricate relationship between individual actions and societal frameworks, this book delves into how personal decisions shape and are shaped by historical contexts. It examines the forces that drive change and the interplay between personal ambition and collective movements, offering a nuanced perspective on the dynamics of history. Through its analysis, it encourages readers to reflect on the impact of their choices within the broader tapestry of societal evolution.

Marx's Capital is back where it belongs, at the centre of debate about Marxism and its purchase on the contemporary world. In recent years there has been an explosion of much wider interest in Capital, after the debate on Capital largely fell silent in the late-1970s. In Deciphering Capital, Alex Callinicos offers his own substantial contribution to the debate. He tackles the question of Marx's method, his relation to Hegel, value theory and labour. He engages with Marxist thinkers past and present, from Gramsci and Althusser to Harvey and Jameson.

This is a wide-ranging Marxist critique of the many forms of post-modernism.2. Callinicos argues that the phenomena identified as post-modernist are not significantly different from the phenomena of modernity as analysed by Marx and Freud. He produces a controversial critique of post-modernists such as Derrida, Lyotard and Baudrillard.3.

In Imperialism and Global Political Economy Alex Callinicos intervenes in one of the main political and intellectual debates of the day. The global policies of the United States in the past decade have encouraged the widespread belief that we live in a new era of imperialism. But is this belief true, and what does 'imperialism' mean? Callinicos explores these questions in this wide-ranging book. In the first part, he critically assesses the classical theories of imperialism developed in the era of the First World War by Marxists such as Lenin, Luxemburg, and Bukharin and by the Liberal economist J.A. Hobson. He then outlines a theory of the relationship between capitalism as an economic system and the international state system, carving out a distinctive position compared to other contemporary theorists of empire and imperialism such as Antonio Negri, David Harvey, Giovanni Arrighi, and Ellen Wood. In the second half of Imperialism and Global Political Economy Callinicos traces the history of capitalist imperialism from the Dutch East India Company to the specific patterns of economic and geopolitical competition in the contemporary era of American decline and Chinese expansion. Imperialism, he concludes, is far from dead.