In the international renaissance of Marxist theory during the 1960s and early 1970s few projects generated as much excitement or controversy as Louis Althusser'

Jacques Rancière's first major work, Althusser's Lesson appeared in 1974, just as the energies of May 68 were losing ground to the calls for a return to order.

The contributors to this volume address themselves to the growth, behavior, and prospects of the two largest Communist parties in Western Europe. The book deals