Produzione, riproduzione, crisi in "Storia e coscienza di classe"

The aim of this article is to contribute to a renewed understanding of Lukács’ "History and Class Consciousness", by highlighting the discontinuity it achieved with respect to German Social Democracy and the way in which its main representatives – from Bernstein to Kautsky – were thinking the relationship between production, reproduction and crisis. Bringing the knot between totality and consciousness back to the forefront, and overcoming the general philosophical premises advocated by the late Engels, Lukács paved the way for a deeper understanding of reification as something from which the proletariat itself was not immune. The last part of the paper addresses how Lukacs believes the 'ideological crisis within the proletariat' needs to be tackled in the transition to socialism in order to make the leap to the “realm of freedom”.