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Intellectual and Manual Labour
A Critique of Epistemology

Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s Intellectual and Manual Labour is one of the major texts of post-war Marxist theory. A tremendous influence on the central figures of the Frankfurt School, with ongoing relevance to current debates about value, abstraction, and domination, Sohn-Rethel’s ideas are here presented at their fullest scope and with their greatest theoretical clarity.
Out of print for many years, this Historical Materialism edition contains a new introduction by Chris O’Kane, an afterword by Chris Arthur, and a compilation of the responses to Intellectual and Manual Labour published in the Italian journal Lotta Continua, including a substantial article by Antonio Negri.

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Reviews
  • Intellectual and Manual Labour is the magnum opus of Sohn-Rethel, a French-born German thinker who had a significant impact on the Frankfurt School – especially Theodor Adorno, but also Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch.”
    —Michael Eby, Tribune

  • “Sohn-Rethel urges us to reconsider issues that still go unnoticed in contemporary Marxist theory.”
    —Christian Caiconte, Progress in Political Economy

  • “The republication of Intellectual and Manual Labour is a gift to Marxist scholars and finally makes Sohn-Rethel’s work available to the wider public.”
    —Fabian Van Onzen, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books