George Sorel (1847-1922) was a French philosopher and theorist of anarchosyndicalism.

He was born in Cherbourg.

Sorel had been a Marxist in the 1890s. He tried to fill in what he believed were gaps in Marxist theory but ultimately created a variation of the ideology. He rejected Marxist theories of historical materialism, dialectical materialism, and internationalism. Sorel came to favour the anarcho-communism of Proudhon and Bakunin. He was heavily influenced by Henri Bergson who developed the importance of myth and demolished scientific materialism.

Sorel rejected those Marxists who believed in inevitable and evolutionary change, preferring more "direct action" approaches. These approaches included general strikes, boycotts, sabotage, and constant disruption of capitalism with the goal being to achieve worker control over the means of production. Sorel's belief in the need for a deliberately-conceived "myth" to sway crowds into concerted action was put into practice by mass fascist movements in the 1920s.

He echoed the Jacobin tradition in French society that held that the only way for change to occur was through the application of force. Sorel praised Charles Maurras, Action Française and Lenin for attacking bourgeois democracy.

Sorel had ties of friendship to Antonio Labriola and wrote a preface to the French translation of Labriola's Essays on the Materialist Conception of History.

Writings of Sorel

• D'Aristotle à Marx (L'Ancienne et la Nouvelle Metaphysique). Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1935.
• La Décomposition du marxisme. An anthology edited by Th. Paquot. Paris: PUF, 1982.
• La Dècomposition du marxisme. Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1908.
• Les illusions du progrès. Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1947.
• Insegnamenti sociali dell'economia contemporanea-Degenerazione capitalista e degenerazione socialista. Milan: Sandron, 1907.
• Introduction à l'économie moderne. 2d ed. Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1922.
• Lettere a un amico d'Italia. Bologna: Capelli, 1963.
• Lettres à Paul Delesalle, 1914-1921. Paris: Grasset, 1947.
• Le Procès de Socrate, Examen critique des thèses socratiques. Paris: Alcan, 1889.
• Réflexions sur la violence. 11th ed. Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1950. translated:
• Reflections on Violence, Collier Books, 1950, translated by T. E. Hulme and J. Roth, Intro by Edward A. Shils
• La Révolution dreyfusienne. Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1921.
• La Ruine du Monde antique, Conception matérialiste de l'Histoire. 3d ed. Paris, Marcel Rivière, 1933.
• Le Système historique de Renan. Paris: G. Jacques, 1905-1906.
• Syndicalisme et Socialisme: Disours prononcès au Colloque tenu à Paris le 3 avril. Paris, Marcel Rivière, 1908.