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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > Marxism & Communism
How successful are social movements and left parties at achieving
social and political change? How, if at all, can movements and
parties work together to challenge existing hierarchies? Is the
political left witnessing a revival in contemporary politics? This
book highlights some of the key achievements of left parties and
protest movements in their goal of challenging different types of
inequality - and considers the ways in which their challenge to
authority and power could be intensified. It combines new
theoretical ideas with rich empirical detail on the debates and
concrete activities undertaken by left parties and protest
movements over a broad historical period, from the early European
labour movement to the recent anti-austerity global protests. The
book will offer unique insight into the broad history and theory of
emancipatory politics; as well as making an important contribution
to ongoing debates between left-leaning academics, researchers and
activists.
How successful are social movements and left parties at achieving
social and political change? How, if at all, can movements and
parties work together to challenge existing hierarchies? Is the
political left witnessing a revival in contemporary politics? This
book highlights some of the key achievements of left parties and
protest movements in their goal of challenging different types of
inequality - and considers the ways in which their challenge to
authority and power could be intensified. It combines new
theoretical ideas with rich empirical detail on the debates and
concrete activities undertaken by left parties and protest
movements over a broad historical period, from the early European
labour movement to the recent anti-austerity global protests. The
book will offer unique insight into the broad history and theory of
emancipatory politics; as well as making an important contribution
to ongoing debates between left-leaning academics, researchers and
activists.
We in the West are living in the midst of a deadly culture war. Our
rival worldviews clash with increasing violence in the public
arena, culminating in deadly riots and mass shootings. A fragmented
left now confronts a resurgent and reactionary right, which
threatens to reverse decades of social progress. Commentators have
declared that we live in a "post-truth world," one dominated by
online trolls and conspiracy theorists. How did we arrive at this
cultural crisis? How do we respond? This book speaks to this
critical moment through a new reading of the thought of Alasdair
MacIntyre. Over thirty years ago, MacIntyre predicted the coming of
a new Dark Ages. The premise of this book is that MacIntyre was
right all along. It presents his diagnosis of our cultural crisis.
It further presents his answer to the challenge of public reasoning
without foundations. Pitting him against John Rawls, Jurgen
Habermas, and Chantal Mouffe, Ethics Under Capital argues that
MacIntyre offers hope for a critical democratic politics in the
face of the culture wars.
This book deals with a central aspect of Marx's critique of society
that is usually not examined further since it is taken as a matter
of course: its scientific claim of being true. But what concept of
truth underlies his way of reasoning which attempts to comprehend
the social and political circumstances in terms of the possibility
of their practical upheaval? In three studies focusing specifically
on the development of Marx's scientific critique of capitalist
society, his journalistic commentaries on European politics, and
his reflections on the organisation of revolutionary subjectivity,
the authors carve out the immanent relation between the
scientifically substantiated claim to truth and the revolutionary
perspective in Marx's writings. They argue that Marx does not grasp
the world 'as it is' but conceives it as an inverted state which
cannot remain what it is but generates the means by which it can
eventually be overcome. This is not something to be taken lightly:
Such a concept has theoretical, political and even violent
consequences-consequences that nevertheless derive neither from a
subjective error nor a contamination of an otherwise 'pure'
science. By analyzing Marx's concept of truth the authors also
attempt to shed light on a pivotal problematique of any modern
critique of society that raises a reasoned claim of being true.
This is the first account of sexual liberation in Eastern Europe
during the Cold War. Katerina Liskova reveals how, in the case of
Czechoslovakia, important aspects of sexuality were already
liberated during the 1950s - abortion was legalized, homosexuality
decriminalized, the female orgasm came into experts' focus - and
all that was underscored by an emphasis on gender equality.
However, with the coming of Normalization, gender discourses
reversed and women were to aspire to be caring mothers and docile
wives. Good sex was to cement a lasting marriage and family. In
contrast to the usual Western accounts highlighting the importance
of social movements to sexual and gender freedom, here we discover,
through the analysis of rich archival sources covering forty years
of state socialism in Czechoslovakia, how experts, including
sexologists, demographers, and psychologists, advised the state on
population development, marriage and the family to shape the most
intimate aspects of people's lives.
Painful Birth is the astounding story of how Chile narrowly escaped
becoming a Leninist/Stalinist slave state in the early 1970s and
over a relatively short historic period was transformed into the
near paragon of freedom and prosperity that it is today. The book
not only narrates the events but also explains the economic
policies, institutional transformation, and ideological change
involved. Painful Birth provides an invaluable case study in
economic growth, international relations, political ideologies, and
Latin American development.
Since the 1920s, Socialist and Communist parties in Europe and
elsewhere have engaged in episodes of both rivalry and cooperation,
with each seeking to dominate the European Left. Enemy Brothers
analyzes how this relationship has developed over the past century,
focusing on France, Italy, and Spain, where Socialists and
Communists have been politically important. Drawing on fieldwork
and interviews in all three nations, W. Rand Smith identifies the
critical junctures that these parties faced and the strategic
choices they made, especially regarding alliance partners. In
explaining the parties' diverse alliance strategies, Enemy Brothers
stresses the impact of institutional arrangements, party culture,
and leadership.
Essays by Ian Andrews, Roland Boer, Heidi Brush, Angela Hubler,
Cynthia Anne McLeod, Carl F. Miller, Jana Mikota, Mervyn Nicholson,
Jane Rosen, Sharon Smulders, Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak, Anastasia
Ulanowicz, Naomi Wood A significant body of scholarship examines
the production of children's literature by women and minorities, as
well as the representation of gender, race, and sexuality. But few
scholars have previously analyzed class in children's literature.
This definitive collection remedies that by defining and
exemplifying historical materialist approaches to children's
literature. The introduction of Little Red Readings lucidly
discusses characteristics of historical materialism, the
methodological approach to the study of literature and culture
first outlined by Karl Marx, defining key concepts and analyzing
factors that have marginalized this tradition, particularly in the
United States. The thirteen essays here analyze a wide range of
texts--from children's bibles to Mary Poppins to The Hunger
Games--using concepts in historical materialism from class struggle
to the commodity. Essayists apply the work of Marxist theorists
such as Ernst Bloch and Fredric Jameson to children's literature
and film. Others examine the work of leftist writers in India,
Germany, England, and the United States. The authors argue that
historical materialist methodology is critical to the study of
children's literature, as children often suffer most from
inequality. Some of the critics in this collection reveal the ways
that literature for children often functions to naturalize
capitalist economic and social relations. Other critics champion
literature that reveals to readers the construction of social
reality and point to texts that enable an understanding of the role
ordinary people might play in creating a more just future. The
collection adds substantially to our understanding of the political
and class character of children's literature worldwide, and
contributes to the development of a radical history of children's
literature.
Why has the European Left become so antagonistic towards Israel? To
answer this question, Colin Shindler looks at the struggle between
Marxism-Leninism and Zionism from the October Revolution to today.
Is such antagonism in opposition to the policies of successive
Israeli governments? Or, is it due to a resurgence of
anti-Semitism? The answer is far more complex. Shindler argues that
the new generation of the European Left was more influenced by the
decolonization movement than by wartime experiences, which led it
to favor the Palestinian cause in the post 1967 period. Thus the
Israeli drive to settle the West Bank after the Six Day war
enhanced an already existing attitude, but did not cause it.
Written by a respected scholar, this accessible and balanced work
provides a novel account and analytical approach to this important
subject. Israel and the European Left will interest students in
international politics, Middle Eastern studies, as well as anyone
who seeks to understand issues related to today's Left and the
Arab-Israeli conflict.>
What did it mean to be a Soviet citizen in the 1970s and 1980s? How
can we explain the liberalization that preceded the collapse of the
USSR? This period in Soviet history is often depicted as stagnant
with stultified institutions and the oppression of socialist
citizens. However, the socialist state was not simply an oppressive
institution that dictated how to live and what to think-it also
responded to and was shaped by individuals' needs. In Soviet
Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 1964-85, Neringa Klumbyte and
Gulnaz Sharafutdinova bring together scholarship examining the
social and cultural life of the USSR and Eastern Europe from 1964
to 1985. This interdisciplinary and comparative study explores
topics such as the Soviet middle class, individualism, sexuality,
health, late-socialist ethics, and civic participation. Examining
this often overlooked era provides the historical context for all
post-socialist political, economic, and social developments.
What is at the heart of political resistance? Whilst traditional
accounts often conceptualise it as a reaction to power, this volume
(prioritising remarks by Michel Foucault) invites us to think of
resistance as primary. The author proposes a strategic analysis
that highlights how our efforts need to be redirected towards a
horizon of creation and change. Checchi first establishes a
genealogy of two main trajectories of the history of our present:
the liberal subject of rights and the neoliberal ideas of human
capital and bio-financialisation. The former emerges as a reactive
closure of Etienne de la Boetie's discourse on human nature and
natural companionship. The other forecloses the creative potential
of Autonomist Marxist conceptions of labour, first elaborated by
Mario Tronti. The focus of this text then shifts towards
contemporary openings. Initially, Checchi proposes an inverted
reading of Jacques Ranciere's concept of politics as interruption
that resonates with Antonio Negri's emphasis on Baruch Spinoza's
potential qua resistance. Finally, the author stages a virtual
encounter between Gilles Deleuze's ontology of matter and
Foucault's account of the primacy of resistance with which the text
begins. Through this series of explorations, The Primacy of
Resistance: Power, Opposition and Becoming traces a conceptual
trajectory with and beyond Foucault by affirming the affinity
between resistance and creation.
This is a concise introduction to the life and work of the Italian
militant and political thinker, Antonio Gramsci. As head of the
Italian Communist Party in the 1920s, Gramsci was arrested and
condemned to 20 years' imprisonment by Mussolini's fascist regime.
It was during this imprisonment that Gramsci wrote his famous
Prison Notebooks - over 2,000 pages of profound and influential
reflections on history, culture, politics, philosophy and
revolution. An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci retraces the
trajectory of Gramsci's life, before examining his conceptions of
culture, politics and philosophy. Gramsci's writings are then
interpreted through the lens of his most famous concept, that of
'hegemony'; Gramsci's thought is then extended and applied to
'think through' contemporary problems to illustrate his distinctive
historical methodology. The book concludes with a valuable
examination of Gramsci's legacy today and useful tips for further
reading. George Hoare and Nathan Sperber make Gramsci accessible
for students of history, politics and philosophy keen to understand
this seminal figure in 20th-century intellectual history.
Drawing on recently declassified material from Stalin's personal
archive in Moscow, this is the first attempt by scholars to
systematically analyze the way Stalin interpreted and envisioned
his world-both the Soviet system he was trying to build and its
wider international context. Since Stalin rarely left his offices
and perceived the world largely through the prism of verbal and
written reports, meetings, articles, letters, and books, a
comprehensive analysis of these materials provides a unique and
valuable opportunity to study his way of thinking and his
interaction with the outside world. Comparing the materials that
Stalin read from week to week with the decisions that he
subsequently shaped, Sarah Davies and James Harris show not only
how Stalin perceived the world but also how he misperceived it.
After considering the often far-reaching consequences of those
misperceptions, they investigate Stalin's contribution to the
production and regulation of official verbal discourse in a system
in which huge political importance was attached to the correct use
of words and phrases..
Introducing the most famous work of the nineteenth-century radical
thinkers Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, this comprehensive
reader's guide to the Communist Manifesto explores the key themes,
ideas and issues of a revolutionary pamphlet.Beginning with a
discussion of the intellectual, political and social context of the
Manifesto, the "Reader's Guide" clearly illustrates the themes by
relating points in the work to ideas and theories made in other
works written by Marx and Engels. This is followed by a closer
examination and analysis of the text that: - covers the
introductory statement and each of the chapters in detail-
discusses the style, structure and intended audience of the
Manifesto including its later prefaces- explores the ways in which
the Manifesto was received both during the lives of Marx and Engels
and in the twentieth century, for example: the Soviet Union's
version of Marxism, China's re-interpretations of the ideas, and
the innovative political philosophy found in Western analytical
Marxism.As well as presenting relevant biographical points about
Marx and Engels and giving concise information on prominent people
mentioned in the text, this valuable study resource features
discussion questions and annotated guides to further reading. For
students studying political philosophy and political theories,
"Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto: A Reader's Guide" provides a
better understanding of the ideas, theories and contexts discussed
in the most famous work of the writers who founded the ideology of
Marxism.
In Austrian economic thought, "human action" guides all social and
cultural experience. For both the real world and for fictional
texts, this starting point can illuminate literature in new ways
and offer valuable insight for literary critics who have previously
been beholden to Marxism and other anti-capitalist perspectives. In
Re-Reading Economics in Literature: A Capitalist Critical
Perspective, Matt Spivey posits that in its relationship to
literature, Austrian economic criticism entails a methodology that
embraces the following: 1) an analytical reading that promotes both
the individual artist as the creator of literature and the
individual reader as the consumer of literature; 2) an
understanding of the entrepreneurial quality of literature, that
capitalism is a system that embraces creativity and evolution in
the marketplace; and 3) a recognition of subjective value as
fundamental to human choice and action, both in art and in the real
world. In addition to the study of the individual, Spivey also
incorporates the concepts of business cycles, government
intervention, social dynamics, and technological evolution in his
analysis. Scholars of literary studies and economics will find this
book particularly useful.
Freedom of religious belief is guaranteed under the constitution of
the People's Republic of China, but the degree to which this
freedom is able to be exercised remains a highly controversial
issue. Much scholarly attention has been given to persecuted
underground groups such as Falungong, but one area that remains
largely unexplored is the relationship between officially
registered churches and the communist government. This study
investigates the history of one such official church, Moore
Memorial Church in Shanghai. This church was founded by American
Methodist missionaries. By the time of the 1949 revolution, it was
the largest Protestant church in East Asia, running seven day a
week programs. As a case study of one individual church, operating
from an historical (rather than theological) perspective, this
study examines the experience of people at this church against the
backdrop of the turbulent politics of the Mao and Deng eras. It
asks and seeks to answer questions such as: were the people at the
church pleased to see the foreign missionaries leave? Were people
forced to sign the so-called Christian manifesto?Once the church
doors were closed in 1966, did worshippers go underground? Why was
this particular church especially chosen to be the first re-opened
in Shanghai in 1979? What explanations are there for its phenomenal
growth since then? A considerable proportion of the data for this
study is drawn from Chinese language sources, including interviews,
personal correspondence, statistics, internal church documents and
archives, many of which have never previously been published or
accessed by foreign researchers. The main focus of this study is on
the period from 1949 to 1989, a period in which the church
experienced many ups and downs, restrictions and limitations. The
Mao era, in particular, remains one of the least understood and
seldom written about periods in the history of Christianity in
China. This study therefore makes a significant contribution to our
evolving understanding of the delicate balancing act between
compromise, co-operation and compliance that categorises
church-state relations in modern China.
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