Lefebvre was born in
Hagetmau,
Landes, France. He studied philosophy at the
Aix-Marseille University and the
University of Paris (the Sorbonne), graduating with a ''
(roughly equivalent to an MA) in 1920. By 1924 he was working with Paul Nizan, Norbert Guterman, Georges Friedmann, Georges Politzer, and in the Philosophies
group seeking a "philosophical revolution". This brought them into contact with the Surrealists, Dadaists, and other groups, before they moved towards the French Communist Party (PCF). During the 1920s, Lefebvre worked various jobs including as a taxi driver, before he secured a teaching appointment at the lycée'' in
Privas in 1929, moving on to
Montargis in 1932 and to
Saint-Étienne in 1940. Lefebvre joined the PCF in 1928 and became one of the most prominent French Marxist intellectuals during the second quarter of the 20th century, before joining the
French resistance. He wrote a series of works on the history of ideas and sought to establish
Karl Marx as a philosopher figure; it was through his introductory texts that
Louis Althusser and
Albert Camus first encountered Marx. Among his works was a highly influential, anti-Stalinist text on dialectics titled
Dialectical Materialism (1940). Under the
Vichy regime, he had his teacher's licence revoked by
Jérôme Carcopino's
Ministry of Education on 11 March 1941 on account of his political views and PCF membership, and worked with
Georges-Henri Rivière on ethnographic projects concerning
rural crafts for the
Musée national des Arts et Traditions Populaires in the
Pyrenees until 1946. From September 1945 to 1949, he was the director of
Radiodiffusion Française, a French radio broadcaster in
Toulouse, and from 1947 he taught at a high school in the same city. In 1947, he published the first volume of his major work
The Critique of Everyday Life. Aiming for an academic career to secure time for his writing, Lefebvre considered
Maurice Halbwachs as a potential thesis advisor in the first post-war years, then failed to persuade the
Toulouse University geographer Daniel Faucher to accept a sociological thesis proposal on the
Campan valley in 1946. In April 1948, he unsuccessfully applied for the post vacated by the sociologist
Georges Gurvitch at the
University of Strasbourg. By 1948, he began doctoral research at the Sorbonne, initially (until at least 1952) supervised by the geographer . In 1954, he defended his two dissertations under the direction of the sociologist
Georges Davy:
Les Communautés paysannes pyrénéennes (origine, développement, déclin). Étude de sociologie historique (primary thesis) and ''Une République pastorale : la vallée de Campan : Organisation, vie et histoire d'une communauté pyrénéenne'' (secondary thesis). According to his own recollection, he influenced and became involved with the
avant-garde architectural group
CoBrA (1948–1951), formed in Paris by
Constant Nieuwenhuys,
Asger Jorn and others. His early work on method was applauded and borrowed centrally by the philosopher
Jean-Paul Sartre in
Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960). During Lefebvre's thirty-year stint with the PCF, he was chosen to publish critical attacks on opposed theorists, especially existentialists like Sartre and Lefebvre's former colleague Nizan, only to intentionally get himself expelled from the party for his own heterodox theoretical and political opinions in the late 1950s. He then went from serving as a primary intellectual for the PCF to becoming one of France's most important critics of the PCF's politics (e.g. immediately, the lack of an opinion on Algeria, and more generally, the partial apologism for and continuation of
Stalinism) and intellectual thought (i.e.
structuralism, especially the work of
Louis Althusser). In 1961, Lefebvre became professor of sociology at the University of Strasbourg, before joining the faculty at the new university at
Nanterre in 1965. He was one of the most respected professors, and he had influenced and analysed the
May 1968 student revolt. Lefebvre introduced the concept of the
right to the city in his 1968 book
Le Droit à la ville (the publication of the book predates the May 1968 revolts which took place in many French cities). Following the publication of this book, Lefebvre wrote several influential works on cities, urbanism, and space, including
The Production of Space (1974), which became one of the most influential and heavily cited works of
urban theory. By the 1970s, Lefebvre had also published some of the first critical statements on the work of
post-structuralists, especially
Michel Foucault. During the following years he was involved in the editorial group of
Arguments, a
New Left magazine which largely served to enable the French public to familiarize themselves with Central European revisionism. Lefebvre died in 1991. In his obituary,
Radical Philosophy magazine honored his long and complex career and influence: ==Critique of everyday life==