Major changes have shaken Marxism over recent decades. This collection of essays, by two American authors of international repute, documents what has become the most original formulation of Marxist theory today. Resnick and Wolff’s work is shaping Marxism’s new directions and new departures as it repositions itself for the twenty first century. Their new non-determinist and class-focused Marxist theory is both responsive to and critical of the other movements transforming modern social thought from postmodernism to feminism to radical democracy and the "new social movements." New Departures in Marxian Theory confronts the need for a new philosophical foundation for Marxist theory. A critique of classical Marxism’s economic and methodlogical determinisms paves the way for a systematic alternative, "over determination," that is developed far beyond the fragmentary gestures of Lukacs, Gramsci, and Althusser. Successive essays begin by returning to Marx’s original definition of class in terms of the surplus (rather than in terms of property ownership and power). Resnick and Wolff develop and apply this class analysis to produce new understandings of modern capitalism’s contradictions (with special emphasis on the US), communism, households, gender differences, income distribution, markets, and monopoly. Further chapters specify how this "overdeterminist class theory" differentiates itself in new ways from the alternative traditions in economics. This collection of topically focused essays enables readers (including academics across many disciplines) to understand and make use of a major new paradigm in Marxist thinking. It showcases the exciting analytical breakthroughs now punctuating a Marxism in transition. Resnick and Wolff do not shy away from exploring the global, political, and activist implications of this new direction in Marxism.
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