In this rethinking of Marxism and its blind spots, Dick Howard
argues that the collapse of European communism in 1989 should not
be identified with a victory for capitalism and makes possible a
wholesale reevaluation of democratic politics in the U.S. and
abroad. The author turns to the American and French Revolutions to
uncover what was truly "revolutionary" about those events, arguing
that two distinct styles of democratic life emerged, the
implications of which were misinterpreted in light of the rise of
communism.
Howard uses a critical rereading of Marx as a theorist of
democracy to offer his audience a new way to think about this
political ideal. He argues that it is democracy, rather than
Marxism, that is radical and revolutionary, and that Marx could
have seen this but did not. In Part I, Howard explores the
attraction Marxism held for intellectuals, particularly French
intellectuals, and he demonstrates how the critique of
totalitarianism from a Marxist viewpoint allowed these
intellectuals to see the radical nature of democracy. Part II
examines two hundred years of democratic political life --
comparing America's experience as a democracy to that of France.
Part III offers a rethinking of Marx's contribution to democratic
politics. Howard concludes that Marx was attempting a "philosophy
by other means," and that paradoxically, just because he was such
an astute philosopher, Marx was unable to see the radical political
implications of his own analyses. The philosophically justified
"revolution" turns out to be the basis of an anti-politics whose
end was foreshadowed by the fall of European communism in 1989.
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