Considerations on Western Marxism

TLDR

Western Marxism emerged in post‑1920s Europe as a response to the failure of proletarian revolts and the isolation of the Russian Revolution, intertwining its theoretical output with the practical fate of working‑class struggles and the cultural shifts of bourgeois thought. The essay evaluates the structural unity of Western Marxism, contrasting its heritage with classical Marxism and outlining the challenges any succeeding historical materialism must face. It surveys the philosophical antecedents and innovations of key Western Marxist thinkers—Lukács, Korsch, Gramsci, Adorno, Marcuse, Benjamin, Sartre, Althusser, Della Volpe, and Colletti—between 1920 and 1975.

Abstract

This synoptic essay considers the nature and evolution of the Marxist theory that developed in Western Europe, after the defeat of the proletarian rebellions in the West and the isolation of the Russian Revolution in the East in the early 1920s. It focuses particularly on the work of Lukacs, Korsch and Gramsci; Adorno, Marcuse and Benjamin; Sartre and Althusser; and Della Volpe and Colletti, together with other figures within Western Marxism from 1920 to 1975. The theoretical production of each of these thinkers is related simultaneously to the practical fate of working-class struggles and to the cultural mutations of bourgeois thought in their time. The philosophical antecedents of the various school within this tradition Lukacsian, Gramscian, Frankfurt, Sartrean, Althusserian and Della Volpean are compared, and the specific innovations of their respective systems surveyed. The structural unity of 'Western Marxism', beyond the diversity of its individual thinkers, is then assessed, in a balance-sheet that contrasts its heritage with the tradition of 'classical' Marxism that preceded it, and with the commanding problems which will confront any historical materialism to succeed it.