This is the first work in English to deal comprehensively with Italian anarchism from the beginning of the century to the rise of fascism. It reconstructs the development of anarchist and syndicalist ideas and programmes and charts their relations with Gramsci and the Turin- based Ordine Nuovo group. The book places these developments within the general context of little known links connecting Italian anarchists and syndicalists to sympathizers in Britain, France, Germany and Russia. The analysis of 'libertarian' politics in Italy is accompanied by a detailed and fascinating reconstruction of the social base of Italian anarchism that challenges the assumptions of much of the political sociology of the European Left.Developing a hitherto unexplored but important aspect of Gramsci's political ideas and strategies, this book contributes to our understanding of one of the central Marxist thinkers and activists of the twentieth century and to one of the critical moments in the history of the European Left. In bringing new life and understanding to an important chapter in contemporary Italian history, this book is likely to become a standard text on this pivotal thinker.' Levy has written a major and important study [...] likely to become a standard reference text.'John Davis, University of Connecticut

Hamilton provides an interdisciplinary explication and assessment of Marxism, of Marxist revisionism, and of Leninism, and delineates the major propositions of the three theories. Because the propositions cover a wide range of subjects, including the growth of cities and large factories, the changing quality of work, declining real incomes, economic crises, working-class organizations, and revolutions, Hamilton assesses them from the viewpoints of urban and industrial sociology, economic and political history, and social movements. Hamilton concludes that little empirical support is found for the claims of Marxism and Leninism, while modest support is found for the revisionist claims. Where others texts fail to provide serious reviews of evidence or references to critical studies or to relevant appropriate sources, this book remedies those deficiencies in a brief, clear, and thoroughly documented format.

The 20th century has been dominated by a clash between capitalism and communism or, put differently, between the underlying theories, liberalism and Marxism. Although central to the recent history, these contending theories are poorly understood. To remedy this misunderstanding, the book begins with brief straightforward explications of liberalism, Marxism, and two variants of the latter, revisionism and Leninism. It then moves on to a more detailed examination of each theory, offering an assessment of the propositions from a variety of social science perspectives. Hamilton completes the work with his conclusions regarding the validity and adequacy of these theories.

European integration has long been a controversial issue in British politics. Whether we should have the Euro and a European Constitution have caused even deeper divides to emerge. This timely and comprehensive book looks at the European policies of the British Left since the end of World War II and provides a clear illustration of the range of debates that have taken place. It also includes interviews with the key players including Tony Benn and Neil Kinnock.

This book is the first comprehensive examination of the close relationship that obtained between leading groups of British socialists and American progressives in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Employing new methods of conceptual and institutional analysis, and drawing on extensive original archival research, the book examines the efforts of leading political theorists to transform the initially distinctive theories of the British and American lefts into a single unified ideology. In so doing it challenges traditional narratives emphasising the exceptional development the American and British lefts, and argues instead that the central theoretical and practical commitments of both movements were constantly shaped and reshaped by international ideological exchange.

This highly topical book presents a new theory on the characteristics of entrepreneurial knowledge. It explores the recent shift among professional economists and scholars in their evaluation of the debate of socialism. Socialism, Economic Calculation and Entrepreneurship presents an application of Israel M. Kirzner's theory of entrepreneurship to the theory of the impossibility of socialism. It discusses the influence of the fall of socialism, with particular reference to the evolution of economic thought.

This collection of original essays offers a defense of socialism in the face of its recent collapse. The volume provides both an overview and a critical inquiry into the essential aspects of the crisis and fall of socialism. It also, however, assesses the prospects of the renewal of the socialist project by addressing long-neglected issues in socialist thinking and writing. Recent developments in Russia, Cuba, and China, combined with theoretical expositions of the crisis and fall of socialism, are used to assess some of the strengths and weaknesses of socialist regimes. Critical essays on specific issues---such as the environment, feminism, law, and Marxist theory---point the way, the authors hope, toward a renewal and re-energizing of socialism.

This volume will be of interest to scholars and students of socialism, Marxism, comparative politics, and political theory.

Useful to both students and scholars of the social sciences and humanities, this book provides a guide to fundamental issues in twentieth-century Marxist thought. Outlining the two distinct and incompatible critiques of vulgar Marxism-- Marxist-Leninism and humanistic Marxism--that gained prominence in the aftermath of World War I, this book presents both an historical overview of these two dominant traditions and a critical analysis of their philosophical roots. Challenging the viewpoints of Marxist thought which have prevailed in this century, Richard Hudelson, argues that the supposed philosophical breakthroughs claimed by both Marxist-Leninism and humanistic Marxism rest upon flawed reasoning. With a careful critique of these prevailing views he presents his own view which while receptive to the social scientific work of current analytical Marxism, de-emphasizes the importance of philosophy in the study of Marxism.

Hudelson contends that developments in contemporary philosophy of science will allow for an appreciation of the scientific Marxism of the Second International without recourse to the philosophical theories of humanistic Marxism and Marxist-Leninism. Also, using some of the more recent developments in the philosophy of science, this book makes possible a fruitful exchange between analytical Marxism and Marxist-Leninism. Divided into three parts, the book first presents a historical introduction which identifies positions and arguments of historical significance. This is followed by an analytical look at various arguments to determine where the strongest position lies. Finally, the author offers some concluding remarks on the significance of his analysis for current directions within Marxist philosophy.

Sexual Politics explores the complex relationship between sexuality and socialist politics in Britain between the 1880s and the present day. Looking at birth control, abortion law reform, and gay rights, this is a timely examination of the relationship between the personal and the political over the last century and a half. Stephen Brooke tells the stories of individuals such as Edward Carpenter, Dora Russell, Sheila Rowbotham, Ken Livingstone, Peter Tatchell, and Tony Blair, and organizations like the Workers' Birth Control Group, the Abortion Law Reform Association, the National Abortion Campaign, and the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Sexual radicalism, first and second wave feminism, and gay liberation all feature in the book's portrait of the progress of sexual politics from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century.
Sexual Politics also offers an analysis of the Labour Party's long and sometimes ambiguous link to issues of sexuality, ending with the considerable contribution made to sex reform by the New Labour governments of 1997 to 2010. Sexual issues were always under the surface of Labour politics in the twentieth century, emerging forcefully in the 1970s and 1980s in a way that brought both division and unity to the party. Brooke stresses the importance of class and gender identity to the fate of sexual issues in British politics, the dynamic nature of British socialism, and the impact of sexual radicalism, feminism, and gay liberation upon socialist and working-class politics. Sexual Politics argues that the shifting relationship between the personal and the political is a central element of twentieth-century British history, a relationship that helped define the character of political modernity.

In these spirited and powerfully written essays, a new generation of intellectuals makes its mark, challenging conservatives and liberals alike to chart a new course for a responsible politics in contemporary society. A new intellectual movement on the left emerges here. No longer trapped by the old polarizing antagonism between Marxism and feminism, these authors demonstrate as never before the need for an awaremess of gender as it affects every aspect of our society. At the same time, these paradigmatic essays map out a new terrain for feminist thinking, one that fully recognizes the complex workings of gender and leaves oppositional feminism far behind.
In the keynote essay, Ambivalence as Alibi, Rosemary Hennessy challenges the most basic assumptions of postmodern sophistication to forge a compelling sytheseis of political, economic, and artistic theory. Betty Joseph, Jennifer Brody, and Poonam Pillai break through the shibboleths of Western liberal tolerance to describe gender inequalities that are intrinsically inter-cultural. Eileen Cleere demonstrates that novels are an important source for understanding how people interpret the economic conditions in which they live, linking social history and literary criticism in a provocative new way. Bridget Elliott uncovers the unusual social and artistic imagination of Marie Laurencin, an artist who was both working-class and avant-garde, and who makes us rethink basic assumptions of artistic form in the visual representation of women. Laura Lyons, analyzing the no-wash protest among IRA prisoners, discovers a new kind of political protest that draws on performance art and the discourse of the body for its political symbolism. And Joseph Litvak, in a highly suggestive critical reading, makes us wonder if the New Historicism may possibly owe its greatest debt to the charming young men of Jane Austen's fictitious world.

go to the Genders website ]

Utopianism and radicalism achieve greater prominence when economic and social crises render the dominant moral and political universe open to question. The essays in this book examine how utopianism and radicalism informed the literary expressions, political discourse, communal experiments, and cultural projects in the U.S. from 1888 to 1918. In particular, these essays track how socialism, anarchism, syndicalism, feminism, and black nationalism contested the ideological terrain during a period when reform ideas and movements were beginning to reshape that terrain. The degree to which utopianism and radicalism were involved in that reformulation, either in its expanse or its constraint, is of prime interest throughout the book. Teachers and students interested in utopian studies, American studies, and the cultural/intellectual history of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era will find this book highly useful.

Major political and economic shifts have marked the turn into the 21st century: the collapse of the Soviet bloc; the rise to prominence of ecological issues; social changes generated by globalization; and, most recently, one of the worst world financial crises ever. These developments compel us to examine the capitalist system with a critical eye and to reflect on the need for alternatives. The 150th anniversary of the birth of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) (1864-2014) offers an important opportunity to compare present mainstream paradigms and the political platform developed by the IWA in order to better address our contemporary crisis?] and theorize solutions. This sourcebook introduces and contextualizes the most valuable notes and proceedings from these legendary meetings, and includes letters and commentary surrounding the events themselves, many appearing for the first time in English. The carefully compiled materials reach beyond Marx's writings through the history of the IWA to include the cooperative movement, trade union reformism, collectivism, and anarchism. In his introductions to these texts, acclaimed scholar Marcello Musto provides accessible critical evaluations and explanations. The text also highlights how certain themes--self-emancipation of the working class versus communist vanguardism and the taking of political power to achieve social ends versus oppressive Soviet-style state control--find sharp discontinuity between Marx's thought as a political leader of the IWA and the tradition of Soviet Marxism. Carefully selected and painstakingly translated, this volume is an invaluable resource for all those interested in the foundations of modern political and labor history.

An analysis of the first half of Francois Hollande's five-year presidential term that examines the strengths and weaknesses of presidential politics following the Left's return to power in 2012 and puts forward an interpretation of the underlying nature of contemporary French politics, and the French Fifth Republic.

Early in the twentieth century, American socialists dared to dream of a future based on cooperation rather than competition. Socialism was a movement broad enough to encompass many points of view regarding the Red millennium. Socialist women, novelists, newspaper editors, and civil rights advocates, Christian socialists and Wobblies strained their eyes to see a future cooperative Commonwealth.

Edward Bellamy portrayed socialism in the year 2000 for millions of readers in his novels as applied Christianity. Bellamy and other utopian novelists, including Jack London and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tried to imagine the role of women in the expected new order. Christian socialists put their faith in a future Kingdom of God on earth that honored the ideas of Karl Marx. Radical newspaper editors in Kansas, Missouri, and Texas attempted to lay out the imagined transition to socialism to their readers in simple, straightforward language that made the goal seem readily obtainable. Mormons, disappointed in the changing nature of their faith, pondered a possible socialist future. Others, such as William English Walling, worked for a time ahead that was both socialist and colorblind. Challenging the notion that they had no concrete vision, this book of essays examines the many ways in which early 20th century American socialists imagined their future.

The development of social democratic politics in the dominant states of Western Europe has been influenced by both domestic and international forces. A succinct history of the expanding popularity of social democracy in these countries, this work explains why political parties, whose electoral following was rooted in the growth of the industrial working class, failed to become dominant parliamentary forces in their respective political systems. The book concludes by discussing the implications of the social democratic past in Europe for the future of socialist politics in a post-Cold War context.

For several decades conservatives set the political agenda in the United States, allowing them to focus the conversation on topics such as tax cuts, national security, and social issues. It is increasingly becoming apparent, however, that this has begun to change. Factors such as the election of the first African-American President and the increasing diversity of the population, the dramatic rise of income inequality, and the social liberalism of younger Americans indicate that progressive political ideas are more influential today than at any point in four decades. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive overview of progressive politics, combining historical analysis, a discussion of policy priorities today, and a survey of the challenges ahead. Featuring essays by leading scholars, analysts, and commentators, it is an indispensable guide to the ideas and debates that will shape American politics in the coming years.

This book not only explicates Stalin's thoughts, but thinks with and especially through Stalin. It argues that Stalin often thought at the intersections between theology and Marxist political philosophy - especially regarding key issues of socialism in power. Careful and sustained attention to Stalin's written texts is the primary approach used. The result is a series of arresting efforts to develop the Marxist tradition in unexpected ways. Starting from a sympathetic attitude toward socialism in power, this book provides us with an extremely insightful interpretation of Stalin's philosophy of socialism. It is not only a successful academic effort to re-articulate Stalin's philosophy, but also a creative effort to understand socialism in power in the context of both the former Soviet Union and contemporary China. ------- Zhang Shuangli, Professor of Marxist philosophy, Fudan University Boer's book, far from both "veneration" and "demonization" of Stalin, throws new light on the classic themes of Marxism and the Communist Movement: language, nation, state, and the stages of constructing post-capitalist society. It is an original book that also pays great attention to the People's Republic of China, arising from the reforms of Deng Xiaoping, and which is valuable to those who, beyond the twentieth century, want to understand the time and the world in which we live. -------Domenico Losurdo, University of Urbino, Italy, author of Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend.

This book investigates the relation between left-wing populism and feminist politics by analysing three specific aspects. First, whether left-wing populist parties promote gender equality policies, against charges of a general inconsistency between both political projects; Second, how do these parties form their policy-making coalitions in the field of gender equality; Third, how much impact on policy do women's movements have when left-wing populists are in power. The book is focused on the case of Bolivia during the first twelve years of Evo Morales's presidency. The empirical analysis is based on the qualitative content analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews with women's movements' activists, policy-makers and experts in women's movements. The central issue of the book is present throughout the volume, but each empirical chapter can be also read as a semi-autonomous analysis of a specific aspect of the relation between left-wing populism and feminist politics, which increases the interest of the book for different audiences including experts in gender and politics and feminist activists, specialists in Latin American politics, indigenous politics and social movements.

The Management of Savagery of tells the story of the parallel rise of international jihadism and Western ultra-nationalism. Since Washington's secret funding of the Mujahideen following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970s, America has supported extremists with money and hardware, including enemies such as Bin Laden. The Pentagon's willingness to make alliances abroad have seen the war coming home with inevitable consequences: by funding, training, and arming jihadist elements in Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya since the Cold War and waging wars of regime change and interventions that gave birth to the Islamic State. Meanwhile, Trump's dealings In the Middle East are likely only to exacerbate the situation further. Blumenthal excavates the real story behind America's dealing with the world and shows how the extremist forces that now threaten peace across the globe are the inevitable flowering of America's imperial designs of a national security state. And shows how this has ended with the rise of the Trump presidency.

Triggered into action by the shock effect of the Nazi rise to power in Germany, socialists throughout Western Europe entered an unusually active period of reorientation and debate over political strategy which helped determine the contours of European politics up to the outbreak of the Second World War and beyond.

The Commoner's Catalog for Changemaking was born of a simple realization: The world we have inherited is no longer working. The future of the planet and civilization as we know it are threatened, and the cries heard during the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests-"I can't breathe"-continue to echo. By giving us tools for navigating the transitions ahead, this catalog helps us breathe more deeply. The Commoner's Catalog for Changemaking explains the transformational power of social collaboration by showcasing dozens of pathbreaking projects, books, websites, and activist initiatives. Commoners seek to prioritize people's needs over market extraction, steward the Earth, relocalize the economy, and build new institutions of empowerment. The emerging Commonsverse can be seen in relocalized food systems and community land trusts...in racial empowerment through collective action and mutual aid...and in free and open source software, peer production, and platform cooperatives. Commoning is helping communities to managing scarce water supplies, farmers to develop regenerative agriculture, and artists to reclaim control of their creative lives. Ordinary people are becoming more self-reliant through timebanking and collaborative finance, care collectives and gift economies, and alternative local currencies. The Commoner's Catalog for Changemaking is an indispensable guide for understanding many profound social transformations now underway. In 25 thematic sections, The Commoner's Catalog offers a rare collection of tools for navigating the transitions ahead and building a new world. It offers a portrait of the system-change activism that is creating an economics of sufficiency, a politics of fairness, and a culture of belonging.

To fully grasp Marx's theory of the labor movement, Lapides supplies a deeper insight into the economic analysis underlying it. This book presents Marx's theory of wages and wage labor, previously scattered throughout his writings, in its entirety for the first time. The author places the theory in its historical context, locating the sources of Marx's wage theory, its intellectual antecedents, and the roots of later controversies, but the primary focus of the work is the actual development of Marx's theory in the words in which he expressed it. In order to reveal the true nature and rich texture of Marx's thought, the author has assembled Marx's own formulations, scattered throughout his numerous works and buried beneath mountains of commentary and criticism. The book provides a faithful record of the complete evolutionary progress of Marx's theory.

There are many ways of presenting the history of the left. In this concise and cogent survey, Darrow Schecter avoids trivializing struggles of the last 150 years, focusing on Marx's theories and the diverse struggles for human emancipation that have characterized European and world history since the French Revolution. Each chapter in the book builds on the previous one, analysing the emergence and development of a specifically left wing understanding of the relation between knowledge, left politics, and emancipation. Schecter explores the crucial question of how to institutionalize the relation between humanity and nature in a free society of fully humanized individuals. Including discussions of Marxism, the Frankfurt School, Critical Theory, Anarchism, Surrealism, and Global Anti-Capitalism, "The History of the Left from Marx to the Present" is a valuable tool for understanding the theories that have helped shape our present-day political world.

Anna Seghers: The Challenge of History features essays by leading scholars devoted to this most important German writer whose novels and stories have been read by millions worldwide. The volume is intended for teachers and students of literature and for general readers. The contributions address facets of Seghers's large body of work which is characterized by reflections on political events shaping world history and written in a highly imaginative array of narrative styles. The first section focuses on the author's famous novel The Seventh Cross. Articles in the next two sections analyze her reactions to crises that marked the twentieth century and her connections to other relevant thinkers of her time. The last section features new translations of Seghers's works.

After 1945, state patriotism of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe was characterized by the widespread use of national symbols. In communist Hungary the party (MKP) widely celebrated national holidays, national heroes, erected national statues, and employed national street names. This 'socialist patriotism' had its origin in the 'national line' of the Comintern, established on Soviet instructions following the German invasion of the Soviet Union. At that time Stalin called the parties of the Comintern to oppose the Germans by issuing the call for national liberation. This policy continued after 1945 when, as an aid in the struggle for power, the MKP presented itself as both the 'heir to the traditions of the nations' and the 'only true representative of the interest of the Hungarian people'. Paradoxically however, the Soviet origins of the national line were also one of the main obstacles to its success as the MKP could not put forward national demands if these conflicted with Soviet interests. Martin Mevius' pioneering study reveals that what had started as a tactical measure in 1941 had become the self-image of party and state in 1953 and that the ultimate loyalty to the Soviet Union worked to the detriment of the national party - the MKP never rid itself of the label 'agents of Moscow'.