Paul Lafargue's masterpiece, The Right To Be Lazy, at once funny and serious, witty and profound, elegant and forceful, is a logical expansion of The Right to the Pursuit of Happiness announced by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. It was not only extremely popular but also brought about pragmatic results, inspiring the movement for the eight-hour day and equal pay for men and women who perform equal work. It survives as one of the very few pieces of writing to come out of the international socialist movement of the nineteenth century that is not only readable-even enjoyable-but pertinent. This new translation by Len Bracken, fuller than previous versions in English, is supplemented by Lafargue's little-known talk on The Intellectuals.
Lafargue Paul Books
Paul Lafargue, a French revolutionary Marxist socialist, is renowned for his seminal work, "The Right to Be Lazy." In this text, he argues for not only the right to work but also the right to be idle, challenging the prevailing obsession with labor. Lafargue critically observes the paradox that African slaves might have lived under better circumstances than European workers, urging a reevaluation of work-centric values.
