Citation

Adler J. Society 2023; 60(5): 750-760.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12115-023-00876-3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The article provides a fresh reading of The Right to be Lazy by Paul Lafargue (1842-1911). Lafargue's text, first published in 1880, has recently been republished. The article examines the resurgent interest in Lafargue in light of current debates about retirement age and shortened working days. It points to the shaping of Lafargue's essay by his experience of a kin-based organization of intellectual production: Lafargue was a son-in-law of Karl Marx and was configured in the Marx circle as a mixed-race Creole. Changes in the reception of Lafargue's critique of the "dogma of work" are noted, and the article argues that the double suicide of Lafargue and his wife sheds its own light upon his famous essay. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Language: en

Keywords

Karl Marx; “The Right to Be Lazy”; Black social theorist; Creole identity; Eight-hour work movement; French anti-semitism; French socialism; Friedrich Engels; Laura Marx; Paul Lafargue; Reduced working hours; Right to suicide