Karl Marx, anthropologist /

Evenhanded and clearly written, this book presents a direct engagement and extended dialogue with Karl Marx's works of social theory over time. Patterson (anthropology, Univ. of California, Riverside) argues that Enlightenment thinkers strongly influenced Marx's critical-dialectical perspective that historicized nature and human society. Marx's emphasis on the centrality of reason and the importance of debates over freedom, his denial of knowledge claims based on authority, and his belief in the historicity of things and the bifurcation of the real world from representations of that world all derived from Enlightenment writers. According to Patterson, "Marx interwove the corporeal organization of human beings, the significance of ensembles of social relations, the historicity and diversity of human societies and their propensities to change, and the importance of praxis in the production, reproduction, and transformation of those communities." Marx's materialism resulted from his fascination as a student with the nexus of arts and sciences (especially history and anthropology), his embrace of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, and his emerging understanding of the nature of precapitalist and capitalist societies. "Marx was indeed an anthropologist," Patterson concludes. Marx's oeuvre focused on societies, past and present, and the possibilities of social change. Valuable for students, especially those unfamiliar with his writings. Summing Up: Recommended. All libraries. J. D. Smith University of North Carolina at Charlotte