Synopses & Reviews
The emergence of ideology theories marked a re-foundation of Marxist research into the functioning of alienation and subjection. Going beyond traditional concepts of manipulation and false consciousness, they turned to the material existence of hegemonic apparatuses and focused on the mostly unconscious effects of ideological practices, rituals and discourses.
In this magisterial work Jan Rehmann reconstructs the different strands of ideology theories ranging from Marx to Adorno/Horkheimer, from Lenin to Gramsci, from Althusser to Stuart Hall, from Bourdieu to W.F. Haug, from Foucault to Butler. He compares them in a way that a genuine dialogue becomes possible and applies the different methods to the market totalitarianism of todays high-tech-capitalism
Review
"This book's treatment is the best introduction we have to the complicated notion of ideology. It provides the most sophisticated yet subtle analyses of how hegemony operates in our time. Jan Rehmann has given us a marvelous gift."
Cornel West, Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice, Union Theological Seminary
"My own intellectual and political conviction is that we need the concept of ideology all the more urgently today, when its use has been stigmatized by contemporary philosophy. Rehmann's book provides a detailed and indispensable account of its history, the various modern versions of the concept and the debates which have swirled around it: just what we need to make a new beginning!"
Fredric Jameson, Duke University
"Part of a larger movement of boldly reconceptualizing Marxism in and for the 21st century, Rehmann offers a philosophically self-conscious rethinking of ideology. Based on critical surveys of other important theories (especially those emerging from Gramsci and Althusser) he explores how and why ideology shapes society, how society shapes the conscious and unconscious parts of ideologies, and how this applies to current phenomena such as neoliberalism, the capitalist crisis since 2007, and the tea party movement."
Richard D. Wolff, University of Massachusetts
Synopsis
Theories of Ideology is sure to become the point of reference for all future scholarly attempts to understand ideology.
Synopsis
Rehmann reconstructs the different strands of ideology theories ranging from Marx to Adorno/Horkheimer, from Lenin to Gramsci, from Foucault to Butler. He compares them in a way that a genuine dialogue becomes possible and applies the different methods to the market totalitarianism of todays high-tech-capitalism to explain the stability of capitalism even in the midst of the crisis.
About the Author
Jan Rehmann, Dr. phil. habil, teaches philosophy and social theories at Union Theological Seminary in New York and the Free University in Berlin. He is co-editor of the
Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism (HKWM) and author of books on ideology, Neo-Nietzscheanism, Max Weber, the churches in Nazi Germany, and poverty.