Lefebvre, Henri

(1901-1991)

   philosopher, sociologist

   Born in Hagetmau, Landes, Henri Lefebvre became a Marxist in 1930 and was one of the communist party's theoreticians until his expulsion from the party in 1958 because of his emphasis on "permanent revolution." He studied the relationship between philosophy and the proletarian revolutionary praxis, as well as contemporary social structures. He believed that "alienation by bourgeois ideology" could be combated only by a permanent cultural revolution (La Conscience mystifiée, 1936; Lénine, 1957; La Somme et la Reste, 1959). His later works show a great diversity of subject, and are often concerned with the sociology of daily life (Critique de la vie quotidienne, 1947-48). Lefebvre's other writings include La Révolution urbaine (1970), La Proclamation de la Commune (1965), De l'État (1976-78), Contre l'idéologie structuraliste (1975), Le Retour de la dialectique (1988).