Description
Book SynopsisHow did one man''s critique of capitalism guide the course of modern history?When he died in 1883, Karl Marx left behind an intellectual legacy of formidable proportions and revolutionary potential, yet one that exerted limited actual political, social, or economic influence. The full force of his ideas did not come into play for another generation, and only after they had been appropriated and applied by some of Marxism''s earliest proponents. The history of Marxism, in other words, is the story of those who brought Marx''s ideas into play, transforming a sweeping but fractious and occasionally abstruse view of historical and social forces into a coherent plan of action. Christina Morina''s illuminating book focuses on the first generation of Marxists who turned the work and ideas of one social theorist, one among many, into one of the most powerful transnational political movements in modern history.The Invention Of Marxism is therefore a group portrait, featuring such figures as Rosa Luxemburg, Max Adler, Jean Jaurès, Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, and Vladimir Lenin German, French, Russian, Czech whose lives became dedicated to interpreting and applying Marxist thought. They were the vehicles by which his ideas were read, debated, and gradually adopted in socialist movements across Europe. Morina''s fascinating book therefore reconstructs the beginnings of Marxism through the individual politicization of a group of intellectuals who made it their purpose in life to solve the ''social question'', exploring the nexus between their intellectual constructs and social and political reality. The Invention of Marxism shows how what started as a theory of capitalism grew into a fully-fledged political philosophy and platform, one that shaped the century that followed Marx''s death. In short, it reveals how an idea first conquered these individuals and then the world.
Trade ReviewMorinas pen-portraits - fine-grained, deftly interlinked - are superb. Forgotten figures, such as Adler and Struve, are coaxed back into the sunlight, famous ones - Lenin, Kautsky, Luxemburg - reimagined * Madoc Cairns, Times Literary Supplement *
Morina's pen-portraits - fine-grained, deftly interlinked are superb. * Madoc Cairns, Editor at Plough Quarterly , TLS *
The Invention of Marxism provides rich biographical portraits of the first generation of Marx's most ardent followers. * Choice *
Table of ContentsPROLOGUE: Marxism as a Generational Project I SOCIALIZATION Born in the Nineteenth Century: Family Influences Adolescence and Its Discontents: Emerging Worldviews Beating the Drum: Literary Influences II POLITICIZATION Paths to Marxism I: London, Paris, Zurich, Vienna (1878-1888) Translating Marxism: Guesde and Jaurès Star Students: Bernstein and Kautsky Theory and Practice: Adler's Belated Marxism Paths to Marxism II: Geneva, Warsaw, St. Petersburg (1885-1903) The Social Question as a Political Question: Plekhanov's Turn toward Marx The Social Question as a Question of Power: Struve and Lenin Engagement as Science: Luxemburg III ENGAGEMENT On Misery, or the First Commandment: The Radical Study of Reality Miserable Living: Depicting Proletarians and Peasants Miserable Labor: The Proletarian World of Work On Revolution, or the Second Commandment: Philosophy as Practice Revolutionary Expectations Revolution at Last? Dress Rehearsal in St. Petersburg, 1905/06 CONCLUSION: From Marx to Marxism: Fieldworkers, Bookworms, and Adventurers
