Marxist Philosophy in Britain: An Overview

Scholarly interest in Marxist philosophy has fluctuated dramatically in the past fifty years. Before that, there was little scholarly work in Britain on Marxist philosophy or on Marxism more generally. In the nineteen fifties there were important contributions by economic theorists and social historians but academic discussion of Marx's philosophy or even of his political theory was minimal and mainly by critics. There were only a few philosophers who adhered to Marxism and these were mostly associated with the British Communist Party. This was an orthodox party aligned with the Soviet Union in its political and theoretical standpoint. It was never a large political party, unlike those in some other European countries such as Italy or France, and had only a limited impact on British intellectual life.