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Marx for Cats: A Radical Bestiary

AUTHOR La Berge, Leigh Claire
PUBLISHER Duke University Press (11/03/2023)
PRODUCT TYPE Paperback (Paperback)

Description
At the outset of Marx for Cats, Leigh Claire La Berge declares that "all history is the history of cat struggle." Revising the medieval bestiary form to meet Marxist critique, La Berge follows feline footprints through Western economic history to reveal an animality at the heart of Marxism. She draws on a twelve-hundred-year arc spanning capitalism's feudal prehistory, its colonialist and imperialist ages, the bourgeois revolutions that supported capitalism, and the communist revolutions that opposed it to outline how cats have long been understood as creatures of economic critique and liberatory possibility. By attending to the repeated archival appearance of lions, tigers, wildcats, and "sabo-tabbies," La Berge argues that felines are central to how Marxists have imagined the economy, and by asking what humans and animals owe each other in a moment of ecological crisis, La Berge joins current debates about the need for and possibility of eco-socialism. In this playful and generously illustrated radical bestiary, La Berge demonstrates that class struggle is ultimately an interspecies collaboration.
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Product Format
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9781478019251
ISBN-10: 1478019255
Binding: Paperback or Softback (Trade Paperback (Us))
Content Language: English
More Product Details
Page Count: 408
Carton Quantity: 28
Product Dimensions: 4.90 x 1.00 x 8.00 inches
Weight: 1.10 pound(s)
Feature Codes: Bibliography, Index, Price on Product, Illustrated
Country of Origin: US
Subject Information
BISAC Categories
Philosophy | General
Philosophy | Cats - General
Philosophy | General
Dewey Decimal: 320.532
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022056743
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
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At the outset of Marx for Cats, Leigh Claire La Berge declares that "all history is the history of cat struggle." Revising the medieval bestiary form to meet Marxist critique, La Berge follows feline footprints through Western economic history to reveal an animality at the heart of Marxism. She draws on a twelve-hundred-year arc spanning capitalism's feudal prehistory, its colonialist and imperialist ages, the bourgeois revolutions that supported capitalism, and the communist revolutions that opposed it to outline how cats have long been understood as creatures of economic critique and liberatory possibility. By attending to the repeated archival appearance of lions, tigers, wildcats, and "sabo-tabbies," La Berge argues that felines are central to how Marxists have imagined the economy, and by asking what humans and animals owe each other in a moment of ecological crisis, La Berge joins current debates about the need for and possibility of eco-socialism. In this playful and generously illustrated radical bestiary, La Berge demonstrates that class struggle is ultimately an interspecies collaboration.
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Paperback