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Philosophy of History and Theory of the Party inSartre and Merleau-Ponty The article revisits the famous dispute between Sartre and Merleau-Ponty in the 1950s, which unfolded through texts such as Humanism and Terror, The Communists and Peace, and The Adventuresof Dialectic. The central question that divided the two philosophers concerned the position that non-communist intellectuals associated with the working class should take towards communist politicsand the Party. The response to this question engaged nothing less than the full articulation of theirrespective social ontologies and their corresponding conceptions of radical politics and historicalemancipation. In particular, the polemic forced them to focus their attention on the relationshipsbetween class experience and class politics, social movement and political organisation. Many ofthese old arguments remain highly suggestive for contemporary concerns, not least Merleau-Ponty’suncanny, critical pre-empting of the shift to liberalism.