Alex Callinicos Books

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.

Few thinkers have been declared irrelevant and out of date with such frequency as Karl Marx. Hardly a decade since his death has gone by in which establishment critics have not announced the death of his theory. Whole forests have been felled to produce the paper necessary to fuel this effort to marginalize the coauthor of The Communist Manifesto. And yet, despite their best efforts to bury him again and again, Marx’s specter continues to haunt his detractors more than a century after his passing. As another international economic collapse pushes ever growing numbers out of work, and a renewed wave of popular revolt sweeps across the globe, a new generation is learning to ignore all the taboos and scorn piled upon Marx’s ideas and rediscovering that the problems he addressed in his time are remarkably similar to those of our own. In this engaging and accessible introduction, Alex Callinicos demonstrates that Marx’s ideas hold an enduring relevance for today’s activists fighting against poverty, inequality, oppression, environmental destruction, and the numerous other injustices of the capitalist system.

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.

Something dramatic happened in the late summer and autumn of 2008. The post- Cold War world came to an abrupt end. This was the result of two conjoined crises. First, in its brief war with Georgia in August 2008, Russia asserted its military power to halt the expansion of NATO to its very borders.

a The class war is over. But the struggle for true equality has only just begun,a Tony Blair has declared. The world indeed enters the 21st century heaving with poverty and inequality. Just three super--rich men have a net worth equal to the income of the 36 poorest countries in the world.

Callinicos is widely read and his books always sell well The book presents a wide range of theories and theorists - including Fukuyama, White, Mann and Brenner It attempts to define the scope and range of an acceptable theory on history* Makes connections between theoretical issues and historical problems (e.g.

The narrative explores the emergence of a new era marked by unprecedented global crises, drawing parallels to the tumultuous period between 1914 and 1945, which included two world wars and the Great Depression. It highlights contemporary existential threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating climate change leading to severe weather events, and the looming risk of nuclear conflict following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This urgent examination underscores the fragility of human existence in the face of these escalating challenges.