Warren Montag (born March 21, 1952)[1] is a professor of English at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California.
He is known primarily for his work on twentieth-century French theory, especially Althusser and his circle, as well as his studies of the philosophers Spinoza, Locke, and Hobbes.
Montag's work has focused on the origins and internal contradictions of political liberalism and individualism, and has demonstrated, following the suggestions of Étienne Balibar, the existence of "a fear of the masses" (or multitude) in the classic texts of seventeenth century liberal thought.
More recently, he has shifted to a study of the emergence of the concept of the market in the work of Adam Smith.
(Co-editor with Nancy Armstrong) differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, Vol 20, n.3-4, 2009 ("The Future of the Human").