Georges Sorel

Vocation

Notable

Traits

French Socialist and revolutionary syndicalist who developed an original and provocative theory on the positive, even creative, role of myth and violence in the historical process. His notion of the power of myth in people's lives inspired Marxists and Fascists. Not until he reached age 40 did he become interested in social and economic questions. In 1892 he retired from his civil-service engineering post and devoted himself to a life of meditation and study. In 1893 he discovered Marxism and began writing the analytical critiques that constitute his most original and valuable achievement. he enthusiastically supported revolutionary syndicalism, a movement with anarchistic leanings that stressed the spontaneity of the class struggle. Sorel wrote on an extraordinarily broad range of topics, including the Bible, Aristotle, and the decline of Rome, in addition to his writings on Socialism. Original in his thought, he was an intellectual eccentric and very nearly a crank. He died on 29 August 1922 in Boulogne-sur-Seine. Link to Wikipedia biography