The Violence of Abstraction: The Analytic Foundations of Historical Materialism

by Derek Sayer

Sayer, Derek

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, History, Nonfiction

173 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1987

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

derek sayer's scanned and posted this book on his academia.edu page here:

https://www.academia.edu/19913844/The...
https://www.academia.edu/19914365/The...
https://www.academia.edu/19915016/The...

[Griffin MB · Rating 5 out of 5]

a stellar defense of Marx's conception of production as production-of-life-conditions as against the very influential (and very wrong) text by GA Cohen on Marx's theory of history, which upholds a technological determinist theory of history. Cohen bifurcates forces and relations of production in a way that removes anything but a formalistic link between them--Sayer, who also wrote an excellent text on Marx's method, mounts a great defense of a non-Second-International, much more dialectical reading of Marx. one of the great takedowns of analytical Marxism and an excellent introduction to Marx's theory of history in its own right.

[Ravi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive rebuttal to the theories of G.A. Cohen with respect to marxist theory and its relationship to functionalism. I cant do justice to the subtleties of the argument (nor am I sufficiently versed in analytical marxism to judge) but the overall argument is compelling. And always a pleasure to encounter a book that cites Dunayevskaya. I recommend it.

[Noah Coates · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely phenomenal work