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.

With an introduction by Dr. Laurence Marlow. A spectre is haunting Europe (and the world). Not, in the twenty-first century, the spectre of communism, but the spectre of capitalism. Marx's prediction that the state would wither away of its own accord has proved inaccurate, and he did not foresee the tyrannies which have ruled large parts of the globe in his name. Indeed, he would have been appalled if he had witnessed them. But his analysis of the evils and dangers of raw capitalism is as correct now as when it was written, and some of his suggestions (progressive income tax, abolition of child labour, free education for all children) are now accepted with little question. In a world where capitalism is no longer held in check by fear of a communist alternative, The Communist Manifesto (with Socialism Utopian and Scientific, Engels's brief and clear exposition of Marxist thought) is essential reading. The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 is Engels's first, and probably best-known, book. With Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, it was and is the outstanding study of the working class in Victorian England.

In The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-Up of Britain Wade Matthews charts the nexus between socialism and national identity in the work of key New Left intellectuals, E.P. Thompson, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Perry Anderson, and Tom Nairn. Matthews considers these New Left thinkers' response to Britain's various national questions, including decolonization and the End of Empire, the rise of European integration and separatist nationalisms in Scotland and Wales, and to the national and nationalist implications of Thatcherism, Cold War and the fall of communism. Matthews establishes a contestatory dialogue around these issues throughout the book based around different New Left perspectives on what has been called "the break-up of Britain." He demonstrates that national questions where crucial to New Left debates.

Investigating 20th century Chinese ideology through the two main elements of passionate belief and cultivation of rage, this timely book examines how Maoist thinking has influenced Western politics. Tracing the origins of Maoist ideas in Western politics, David Martin Jones and M.L.R. Smith expertly apply the principles of strategic theory to provide an understanding of how Mao's ideas made their way from China into Western societies where they exert a profound and little understood impact on contemporary political conduct. The book offers critical insights into key theoretical discourses and their practical applications, including: Maoism, Orientalism and post-colonial discourse theory, Maoism and the mind, and Maoism and the politics of passion. Forward-thinking in its approach, it addresses the important question of where Maoism will end, analysing the trajectory that Maoism is likely to take and what the cumulative impact of it upon Western societies may be. This invigorating read will be a fascinating resource for scholars of political theory and history wishing to gain an insight into the impact of Maoist ideas in the West. It will also provide students of international politics and international studies with a much greater understanding of China's revolutionary thinking in world politics. 'This insightful volume exposes the influence of Maoism on left wing intellectuals in the West. Jones and Smith reveal how not just Mao's thought but the anti-democratic and often inhumane practices that came to be associated with China's Cultural Revolution are today being rehabilitated in woke form. This superb book is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand what lies behind today's dominant political trends.' - Joanna Williams, Founder and Director of Cieo, UK

From the Vanguard to the Margins is dedicated to the work of the late British historian, Dr Mark Pittaway (1971-2010), a prominent scholar of post-war and contemporary Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Breaking with orthodox readings on Eastern bloc regimes, which remain wedded to the 'totalitarianism' paradigm of the Cold War era, the essays in this volume shed light on the contradictory historical and social trajectory of 'real socialism' in the region. Mainstream historiography has presented Stalinist parties as 'omnipotent', effectively stripping workers and society in general of its 'relative autonomy'. Building on an impressive amount of archive material, Pittaway convincingly shows how dynamics of class, gender, skill level, and rural versus urban location, shaped politics in the period. The volume also offers novel insights on historical and sociological roots of fascism in Hungary and the politics of legitimacy in the Austro-Hungarian borderlands.

Georg Lukacs was one of the most important intellectuals and philosophers of the 20th century. His last great work was an systematic social ontology that was an attempt to ground an ethical and critical form of Marxism. This work has only now begun to attract the interest of critical theorists and philosophers intent on reconstructing a critical theory of society as well as a more sophisticated framework for Marxian philosophy. This collection of essays explores the concept of critical social ontology as it was outlined by Georg Lukacs and the ways that his ideas can help us construct a more grounded and socially relevant form of social critique.

As the author of the ground-breaking work of Marxist political economy, Finance Capital, and a leader in the German Social Democratic Party, Rudolf Hilferding was a dominant intellectual and political figure in the history of European socialism from its halcyon days in the pre-1914 era until its collapse in the 1930s. This collection of his previously unpublished correspondence allows readers to trace the evolution of Hilferding's thought as socialism's fortunes declined and his own fate became precarious. It shows how, in the face of rising Stalinism and fascism, democracy remained at the core of his socialist vision.

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.

This compelling book describes how everyday people courageously survived under repressive Communist regimes until the voices and actions of rebellious individuals resulted in the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe. Part of Greenwood's Daily Life through History series, Daily Life behind the Iron Curtain enables today's generations to understand what it was like for those living in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, particularly the period from 1961 to 1989, the era during which these people-East Germans in particular-lived in the imposing shadow of the Berlin Wall. An introductory chapter discusses the Russian Revolution, the end of World War II, and the establishment of the Socialist state, clarifying the reasons for the construction of the Berlin Wall. Many historical anecdotes bring these past experiences to life, covering all aspects of life behind the Iron Curtain, including separation of families and the effects on family life, diet, rationing, media, clothing and trends, strict travel restrictions, defection attempts, and the evolving political climate. The final chapter describes Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall and the slow assimilation of East into West, and examines Europe after Communism.

The Dutch-German Communist Left, represented by the German KAPD-AAUD, the Dutch KAPN and the Bulgarian Communist Workers Party, separated from the Comintern (1921) on questions like electoralism, trade-unionism, united fronts, the one-party state and anti-proletarian violence. It attracted the ire of Lenin, who wrote his Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder against the Linkskommunismus, while Herman Gorter wrote a famous response in his pamphlet Reply to Lenin. The present volume provides the most substantial history to date of this tendency in the twentieth-century Communist movement. It covers how the Communist left, with the KAPD-AAU, denounced 'party communism' and 'state capitalism' in Russia; how the German left survived after 1933 in the shape of the Dutch GIK and Paul Mattick's councils movement in the USA; and also how the Dutch Communistenbond Spartacus continued to fight after 1942 for the world power of the workers councils, as theorised by Pannekoek in his book Workers' Councils (1946).

Vicente Lombardo Toledano was the founder of numerous labour union organisations in Mexico and Latin America between the 1920s to the 1960s. He was not only an organiser but also a broker between the unions, the government, and business leaders, able to disentangle difficult conflicts. He cooperated closely with the governments of Mexico and other Latin American nations and worked with the representatives of the Soviet Union when he considered it useful. As a result he was alternately seen as a government stooge or a communist, even though he was never a member of the party or of the Mexican government administration. Daniela Spenser's is the first biography of Lombardo Toledano based on his extensive private papers, on primary sources from European, Mexican and American archives, and on personal interviews. Her even-keeled portrayal of the man counters previous hagiographies and/or vilifications.

The Bourgeois Charm of Karl Marx & the Ideological Irony of American Jurisprudence employs a well-known body of work, Marx's, to explain the inevitable limits of scholarship, in hopes to encourage academic boldness, and diversity, especially within American jurisprudence. While scholarly meaning-making has been addressed in specific academic areas, mostly linguistics and philosophy, it has never been addressed in a triangular relationship between the text (T1) and its instigator (S1), as well as its subsequent interpellator (S2). Furthermore, while addressed as a result of difference, it has never been addressed for today's liberal theory, which includes liberal jurisprudence, through the mirror of Marxist difference. Scholarship is the unique product of the instigator's private and public subjectivity, as all theory is aimed to be communicated and used by the scholarly community and beyond. Understanding its public life, textual instigators (S1) aim to control its meaning employing various research methods to observe reality and then to convey their narrative, or "philosophy". But meaning is not fixed; it is negotiated by S1 and those theories interpellate (S2), according to their own private and public subjectivity, which covers their ideology. Negotiated meaning is always a surprise to both S1 and S2, surprise which is both ironic and ideological. The book has ten chapters, an index and a list of references

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 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..

"On Anarchism" provides the reasoning behind Noam Chomsky's fearless lifelong questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched power. In these essays, Chomsky redeems one of the most maligned ideologies, anarchism, and places it at the foundation of his political thinking. Chomsky's anarchism is distinctly optimistic and egalitarian. Moreover, it is a living, evolving tradition that is situated in a historical lineage; Chomsky's anarchism emphasizes the power of collective, rather than individualist, action.
The collection includes a revealing new introduction by journalist Nathan Schneider, who documented the Occupy movement for "Harper's" and "The Nation," and who places Chomsky's ideas in the contemporary political moment. "On Anarchism" will be essential reading for a new generation of activists who are at the forefront of a resurgence of interest in anarchism--and for anyone who struggles with what can be done to create a more just world.

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.