> Could you expand on this? I thought Anderson had been an enthusiastic
> proponent of Althusser. I read Gregory Elliot's book on Anderson, but I
> don't remember anymore what it said on this. Anderson now thinks Althusser
> was a repulsive shit?
As far as I know, Perry Anderson was never a wholly enthusiastic proponent of Althusser - he found him interesting, as an editor published translations in NLR and NLB, as well as critical commentaries, but was always critical of him in his own writing. He always played host and adjudicator. He was increasingly into Gramsci while the Althusser craze was on in the UK. In 'Considerations on Western Marxism' and 'Arguments Within English Marxism' [1980] he is sometimes quite damning of Althusser's theory even while he argues that Althusser attempts to answer important questions that EP Thompson fails to grasp or engage with.
Actually in AWEM there's a whole chapter on EP Thompson's description of Althusser as giving Stalinism "its true, rigorous and totally coherent theoretical expression", saying, basically, that it's bullshit, and along the way discussing how the epithet has mutated. I wish I had time to type sections in here.
Mike Beggs