Marx’s Temporalities

Historical Materialism #44

by Massimiliano Tomba

Rethinking the central categories of Marx's work, this study provides a critical analysis of his political and theoretical development. By integrating the paradigm of the spatialisation of time with that of the temporalisation of space, Tomba shows that an adequate historiographical paradigm for capitalism must consider the plurality of temporal layers that come into conflict in modernity.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short book, but it is quite dense and took me a long time to digest. I will probably keep coming back to it for reference. This is not for newbies, as it assumes more than a beginner’s familiarity with the subject matter.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marx’s Temporalities elucidates upon the role of temporalities in Marx’s work, but the book is not necessarily transformative. This is a fine resource for readers who have some background in Marxist ideas but have not necessarily read Marx in detail or that many commentaries on Marx themselves.

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 1 out of 5]

A complete copy-paste from Ernst Bloch's and Walter Benjamin's proposals.

There is literally nothing new on this.

[Gail Hamner]

An excellent analysis of how easy it is to fall in step with Marx's critique of political economy (circulation) and not push further to the the critique of the critique, the inversion that occurs when we focus on production. This inversion leafs Tomba to examine the multiples temporalities inherent in any moment of global capitalism and the effects of embracing this complexity in order better to understand the persistence of slavery and colonizing dynamics.