ABSTRACT
Henri Lefebvre (1901-91) was a French Marxist social theorist, philosopher, and historian. Born and raised in the Landes region of southwestern France, he studied philosophy in Paris where he became involved with a group of young intellectuals promoting Marxist ideas. He joined the French Communist Party in 1928. He was influenced by Marx’s early writings, some of which he translated into French. He fought in the French Resistance during World War II. Afterwards he became a broadcaster and devoted his time to writing about Marxism, though he regularly skirmished with the Party over his “humanist” Marxist views that were based, in part, on the Hegel-influenced early writings of Marx. Lefebvre was expelled from the French Communist Party in 1958 because of his anti-Stalinist views (though he became involved again in the late 1970s).
