"This collection of Kojeve's thoughts about Hegel constitutes one of the few important philosophical books of the twentieth century--a book, knowledge of which is requisite to the full awareness of our situation and to the grasp of the most modern perspective on the eternal questions of philosophy."--Allan Bloom (from the Introduction)

During the years 1933-1939, the Russian-born and German-educated Marxist political philosopher Alexandre Kojève (1902-1968) brilliantly explicated--through a series of lectures--the philosophy of Hegel as it was developed in the Phenomenology of Spirit. This collection of lectures--originally compiled by Raymond Queneau and edited for its English-language translation by Allan Bloom--shows the intensity of Kojève's study and thought and the depth of his insight into Hegel's Phenomenology. More important--for Kojève was above all a philosopher and not an ideologue--this profound and venturesome work on Hegel will expose the readers to the excitement of discovering a great mind in all its force and power.