For in this book one of the long-standing class category problems of Marxism is investigated: the problem of the lumpen-proletariat which has been under-theorized. It is on the whole an odd dimensioned volume that is reversible: turn the former upside down and flip it over and the latter begins.īut it would be a mistake to dismiss Sakai because of the Settlers controversy or the aesthetic presentation of his works, both of which were intentional provocations aimed at various first world left dogmas. The “Dangerous Class” and Revolutionary Theory shares itself with another book, Mao Z’s Revolutionary Laboratory & the Lumpen/Proletariat. Although the recent second edition of Settlers attempted to normalize the book within left discourse by producing it according to recognizable book standards, Sakai proved that he is still an aesthetic provocateur with his most recent book. When Settlers appeared in the 1980s it was printed and bound as a movement mimeograph, with dimensions approximating a graphic novel, filled with pictures and creative text layout. Which is unfortunate because The “Dangerous Class” and Revolutionary Theory, though still defined by this mixture of movement polemic and political analysis, deserves to be appreciated according to its own merits rather than fall under the shadow of his iconic political work. His most infamous book, Settlers, is not only paradigmatic of this hybridity but will always serve as the backdrop for anything he produces. Moreover, his work is a hybrid of the polemical and empirical he shifts between the registers of movement radical and political theorist. His work, when it is not relegated to obscurity, is treated as either sacrosanct or heretical, and so it is very difficult to review his most recent book without capitulating to this binary. (mirrored from Marx & Philosophy Review of Books)

J sakai books