Works on Marxism are legion; those on Marxism and philosophy only somewhat less so. Does Callinicos have anything new to say on the subject or any interesting or illuminating interpretation to offer. That this is not only possible but necessary has to be asserted against all those who see no point in what they consider canonical exegesis. Marxism is not yet a spent force and new conditions of existence allow and necessitate different vantage points from which to applause the past.
The novelty offered by Callini¬cos in this study devolves around his dual intention of diverting ‘Western Marxism’ from its preoccupation with struggles in the ideological sphere rather than in the con¬crete battleground of class struggle; and of adducing sup-port for his own ideological positions from the most ‘advanced’ developments in contemporary academic philo¬sophy, notably that stemming from the Anglo-Analytic tra¬dition and the structuralist and post-structuralist movements in France.