French Connections

Before World War II, no indigenous Marxian tradition existed in France. Stalinist hacks dominated the scene, and the socialist movement largely subsisted on a thin gruel of traditional Marxist ideas mixed with generous infusions of Jacobin ideology and native “utopian socialist” ingredients. All this changed abruptly after the liberation. We were now witness to various characteristically French attempts to revitalize Marxist philosophical reflections, partly through a return to He...