Classic and Contemporary Latin American Social Theory José Carlos Mariátegui

This volume explores the life, work, and impact of the Peruvian thinker José Carlos Mariátegui (1894–1930), particularly his political biography, his intellectual production, and his critique of Eurocentrism. This posthumous fame is based on the idea that, in the whole of his political-theoretical project, the relationship between Latin America and Marxism was not built using a mechanical linking of effects and causes, of the blatant copy of the theory produced in Europe, of the immediate application of positivist formulas. In this complex relationship, enigmatic and insinuating, a dissonant historical temporality emerged in Latin America. The apparently unbalanced temporalities marked the matrix of capitalist exploitation, but also present, in Mariátegui’s view, glimmers of future possibilities. This book is essential reading for scholars of social sciences and history interested in understanding the historical roots and political dilemmas of Latin American and European societies from the unique perspective of one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century.