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“…more a work of intellectual history than a detailed critical reading of the theories produced by the Philosophies group. Nonetheless, [Burkhard] achieves his twin aims of both recovering this aspect of the history of French Marxism and proving its significance, thereby providing an important starting point for further reflection and debate.”
-Modern and Contemporary France
After the First World War, stunned European intellectuals confronted a devastating cultural void as all their previous ideals and certainties had been demolished in the mechanized carnage of trench warfare. One small group of Parisian intellectuals, the "Philosophies," elegantly voiced their generation's anguish and for a while were expected to discover the philosophical solutions that had eluded all others.
The Philosophies - founded in 1924 and including Henri Lefebvre, Georges Friedmann, Paul Nizan, Georges Politzer, Pierre Morhange, and Norbert Guterman - are recognized today as the first group of innovative Marxist theorists in France. Unlike their peers, the Philosophies rejected the established Cartesian thought of the French academic tradition and initially espoused religious mysticism as the key to all knowledge and action. The group's desire for an all-inclusive method of knowing then led them to explore classical German idealism, especially the works of Schelling and Hegel. Finally they adopted a heretical brand of Marxism, which incorporated Pascal, Spinoza, and Nietzsche. Although this unusual intellectual trajectory jeopardized their longevity and clouded their influence, the philosophies did participate in this century's major intellectual currents, including the Frankfurt School, the surrealists, and the Annales movement.
French Marxism between the Wars explores the responses to inquiétude that the Philosophies pioneered and shared with other French intellectuals; the circle's dissemination of Hegelian, Nietzschean, and Marxist thought in France; and the resulting theoretical contributions to psychology, sociology, political economy, philosophy, and literature.
Bud Burkhard, associate professor of history at Morgan State University, has received awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as the American Historical Association's coveted Schmitt Grant. His writings have appeared in French Historical Studies, Historical Reflections, Contemporary European History, and Studies in Soviet Thought.