Why do you think there has been a return to Marx’s work in the 21st century? Why do you focus on the last period of his life?
MM: In the final years of his life, Marx elaborated on many questions that, while often underestimated or even ignored by scholars of his work, are critically important for the political agenda of our time. These include ecology, individual freedom in the economic and political sphere, queer liberation, the critique of nationalism, and forms of collective property not controlled by the state.
In addition, Marx researched non-European societies and spoke out against the ravages of colonialism in no uncertain terms. It is incorrect to suggest otherwise. This is evident in Marx’s unfinished manuscripts–recently published in the historical-critical edition of his complete works, the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA2)–in spite of the skepticism that is fashionable in certain academic quarters. Thus, 30 years after the end of the Soviet Union, it is possible to read a very different Marx than the dogmatic, economistic, and Eurocentric theorist who has been criticized for so many years by those who have not read his work or have only done so superficially.
Almost all the intellectual biographies of Marx published to date give excessive weight to his earlier writings. For a long time, the difficulty of accessing the scholarship he did in the last years of his life obstructed an understanding of his important achievements. All of Marx’s biographers dedicated just a few pages to his activity after the dissolution of the International Workingmen’s Association in 1872, and have almost always used the generic title “the final decade” to summarize this phase of his life, rather than delving into what he actually did. My book aims to contribute to filling that gap…
Please see full publication on MRonline.