Louis Althusser was one of the most important Communist philosophers of the late twentieth century. From his bases at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, where he taught for more than thirty years, and in the Parti Communiste Français (PCF; French Communist Party), Althusser led a "return to Marx" which attempted to combat the Hegelianism and humanism that influenced Communist Party philosophy after the death of Joseph Stalin. Although Althusser objected to what he saw as the mechanical economism of Communist Party orthodoxy under Stalin, he wished to retain the scientificity of Marxist thought, seeing Marxism not as simply an outgrowth of nineteenth-century German philosophy, but as a new science of history and society in its own right.

In his work, Althusser borrowed from some of the most interesting and inventive theorists of the twentieth century. His approach to Marx's texts, for example, was influenced by...