The Dangerous Class

The Concept of the Lumpenproletariat

Hardcover, 208 pages

English language

Published Oct. 19, 2020 by University of Michigan Press.

ISBN:
978-0-472-12808-2
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Marx and Engels’ concept of the “lumpenproletariat,” or underclass (an anglicized, politically neutral term), appears in The Communist Manifesto and other writings. It refers to “the dangerous class, the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society,” whose lowly status made its residents potential tools of the capitalists against the working class. Surprisingly, no one has made a substantial study of the lumpenproletariat in Marxist thought until now. Clyde Barrow argues that recent discussions about the downward spiral of the American white working class (“its main problem is that it is not working”) have reactivated the concept of the lumpenproletariat, despite long held belief that it is a term so ill-defined as not to be theoretical. Using techniques from etymology, lexicology, and translation, Barrow brings analytical coherence to the concept of the lumpenproletariat, revealing it to be an inherent component of Marx and …

1 edition

Subjects

  • Marxism
  • Lumpenproletariat
  • Underclass
  • Class Analysis
  • Revolutionary Theory
  • Historical Materialism

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