Sociological Marxism

Erik Olin Wright taught the course Sociological Marxism for nearly three decades. Generations of influential thinkers passed through the course, and it took on an almost mythic stature on the left and throughout the discipline of sociology. Though it evolved over time, the guiding principles remained the same: claims about how the world works ought to be testable. Values can guide research but must never cloud scientific conclusions. And if you really understand an idea or phenomenon, then you should be able to explain it in simple language.

Sociological Marxism guides readers through the most convincing theories explaining many of the most confounding political, social, and economic questions. Exploring topics ranging from the state to gender, and exploitation to measurements of well-being, this book makes a social scientist out of its reader in a single pass.

Praise for Erik Olin Wright

"His ideas captured the imagination of audiences, intellectuals, and activists across the globe. Wright reinvented the meaning of socialism." — New York Times

"Erik will be remembered as the most important theorist of class in the second half of the twentieth century, and the greatest Marxist sociologist of his time." — Vivek Chibber, author of Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital