Georges Sorel

Georges Eugene Sorel (1847 to 1922) was a French social thinker, political theorist, historian and later journalist who inspired theories and movements grouped under the name of Sorelianism. His social and political philosophy owed much to his reading of Proudhon, Fernand Pelloutier, Karl Marx, Giambattista Vico, Henri Bergson and later William James. He is most often remembered for his notion of the power of myth in collective agency, together with his defense of violence, ideas that inspired socialists, anarchists, Marxists and fascists. Politically he moved from early liberal-conservative positions towards Marxism, social democracy and eventually syndicalism, and in his last years he favored Lenin and Bolshevist positions. His legacy in the interwar period appealed to both ends of the political spectrum.