– George Ciccariello-Maher, Drexel University, USA
‘For several decades now, the long shadow of Laclau and Mouffe have linked Marxism to authoritarianism and essentialism. Despite spirited rejections of this view, there remains a kind of orthodoxy based on their view that Marxism inevitably diminishes popular involvement and maximizes centralized authority structures as it is practiced. Brian Lovato challenges this view in his fresh and insightful take on the legacy of Marxism. He turns to several non canonical or even anti-canonical figures in doing so: Raya Dunayevskaya, C.L.R. James and Cornelius Castoriadis. Reading Dunayevskaya in particular as one who recognized an alternative and far more contingent and populist version of Marxism, Lovato shows that Lenin himself can be reread as anticipating and seeking an alternative form of Marxism that negates the kinds of critiques that Laclau and Moufffe will ascribe to it. This book will reenergize those who seek to turn to Marx (and Lenin too) insofar as it demonstrates that the baggage that is often associated with Marxism need not stem from Marx himself―and not always from the practices of marxism either―but rather comes from various discourses that presume a kind of fatal flaw in marxism that leftists must therefore avoid ever after.’
– James Martel, San Francisco State University, USA
