Althusser and His Contemporaries

"Like no one else can, Warren Montag brings to life in this wonderful book the adventure of Althusser's thought in all its excitement and brilliance."—Michael Hardt, coauthor of Declaration

"Warren Montag's reconstruction of the Althusserian journey into the hazardous territories of politics and philosophy gives us a fascinating account of the Marxist philosopher's trajectory, while illuminating his interactions with the major works of 'French theory.' There is no equivalent to Montag's interpretation, which rectifies many conventional notions and combines empathy with absolute mastery of the archive and the conceptual problems at stake. But Althusser and His Contemporaries is also a philosophical creation in its own right, delineating what I am tempted to call a negative eschatology: no doubt one of Althusser's most exciting 'aleatory' heritages."—Étienne Balibar, coauthor of Reading Capital

“Beg, steal, borrow, or even buy Warren Montag's book on Althusser, it is very good. While he suggests that there can be no last word on Althusser, Montag's work provides an impressive overview which is a delight to read.”

“...this will be a required resource on Althusser for the next generation of readers. Essential.”

"[T]his is a much-needed book. It extricates Althusser from the ‘gnawing criticism of mice’ and paves the way for a renewed interest in his work, one that takes into account the unpublished materials that emerged after his death – not only to make possible an analysis of the ‘late’ Althusser (the Althusser of the aleatory materialism explicitly elaborated in the 1980s), but also for a reconsideration of the Althusser of the 1960s and 1970s.”

“For those generally familiar with Althusser and his contemporaries, Montag provides one of the most original and energizing analyses of Althusser’s body of work.”

"Montag has produced an excellent contribution to the limited Anglophone literature, re-positioning, or rather re-emphasising, Althusser’s place in contemporary French theory, and he makes a strong case for his enduring relevance."