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A History of European Socialism (Paperback, New Ed)
Loot Price: R1,646
Discovery Miles 16 460
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A History of European Socialism (Paperback, New Ed)
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Total price: R1,666
Discovery Miles: 16 660
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More an intellectual history of European socialism than a history
of socialist politics, oddly - about the ideas of Rousseau, Paine,
Cobbett, Babeuf, Owen, Luxemburg, Kautsky, and others of
more-than-European importance. A history of European socialism,
also, that founders on the problem of definition: Santa Barbara
historian Lindemann spends a lot of time on the Soviet Union and on
Western communist parties. As regards the thinkers, Lindemann's
treatment lacks subtlety and color: to depict Marx as casting about
until he discovers the proletariat is to fall somewhere between a
theoretical understanding and a biographical insight. The
successive thinkers, moreover, are often categorized in terms
familiar to present-day historians but not to the subjects Was
Babeuf (1760-1797) a communist? Was Marx a Leninist? (Yes and
probably not, says Lindemann.) The intellectualist approach does at
least pay off by providing summaries of a lot of writers; less can
be said of the approach to socialism as a movement. To treat the
Russian Revolution as a European socialist event is legitimate, for
it did occur in European Russia. But once the USSR was in place,
there are both ideological and geographical reasons for relegating
it to secondary importance. Instead, Lindemann goes through the
Stalinist phase in detail, and also devotes considerable attention
to the communist parties of France and Germany - which stretches
socialism from the communist hard-liners of the late 1920s to
Helmut Schmidt. On the long, long way from Luddism to the German
Social Democrat's policy of worker participation, furthermore,
there is no attempt to provide an interpretation of socialism that
would not only contain both but would help readers see how the path
was traveled from one to the other. George Lichtheim's two books -
advisedly, one on socialism and one on Marxism - remain the
standard. (Kirkus Reviews)
"This is a serious and accomplished synthesis. . . . Biographical
vignettes enliven the presentation of ideas, and references to
studies of regional diversities . . . give the narrative an
uncommonly rich texture. . . . Lucid and illuminating. . . . It is
the best book on the subject to put into the hands of our
students."-Helmut Gruber, International Labor and Working Class
History "A synthetic narrative by a young academic scholar . . .
who has independent ideas on an important subject. . . . This book
is worth reading if for no other reason than its modest, but
nonpatronizing rehabilitation from generations of Marxist
caricature of a host of deeply democratic European
socialists."-James H. Billington, Washington Post Book World "One
asset of this book is its lack of the overbearing personal
partisanship one finds in so many historical studies of socialism.
. . . [Lindeman incorporates] some recent and inaccessible studies
in social history written 'from the bottom up.'"-David D'Arcy,
World View "As a whole, Lindemann offers a more balanced treatment
of the ideas and the movement of socialism than found in many
extant histories. . . . A must for all college and university
libraries."-Choice "A competent and fair-minded study of a
controversial subject. It presents much factual material and
judicious interpretation in lucid prose."-L. S. Stavrianos, Los
Angeles Times Book Review
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