Althusser: The Detour of Theory - Gregory Elliot

 

First published in 1987, Althusser, The Detour of Theory was widely received as the fullest account of its subject to date. Drawing on a wide range of hitherto untranslated material, it examined the political and intellectual contexts of Althusser's `return to Marx' in the mid-1960s; analysed the novel character of the Marxism developed in his major works; charted their author's subsequent evolution, from his self-criticism to the proclamation of a `crisis of Marxism'; and concluded with a balance-sheet of Althusser's contribution to historical materialism.