The title is not meant to suggest still another balance-sheet of
Marxism's pros and cons - the "take it or leave it" approach;
rather, it reflects economist Heilbroner's (New School for Social
Research) attitude toward his subject: he's both for and against.
One reason why Heilbroner is so prolific is that he writes short
books, and his intention here is to convey the basic elements of
Marxism to general readers without making it ridiculous. He does
this in only 137 pages by keeping to a general level and
concentrating on Marx's main methods and insights. Comparing Marx
to Plato and Freud, Heilbroner explains that Marx tried to see
through social phenomena to underlying patterns and meanings. By
concentrating on history and on the inherent tensions by which
social institutions are sustained - the famous "contradictions," on
which Heilbroner is very good - Marx saw flux where others saw
static, timeless "reality." But Marx also saw the act of
understanding the world as part of the effort to change it, and it
is here that Heilbroner confronts the authoritarian legacy of
Marxism and defines his own position. Socialism, within Marx's
perspective, must be seen as a qualitatively different type of
society from capitalism (just as capitalism is from feudalism); the
upshot is that we don't know exactly what it would be like. But
Marxists, Heilbroner notes, are running around with blueprints
incorporating ways of thinking from the bourgeois epoch which fail
to transcend it - and, indeed, often seek only to negate it by
attacking democratic values. Though Heilbroner ventures to
speculate that Marx's socialism would be something akin to a
religious community, he prefers to take Marx's methods and insights
- though he presents their unresolved problems every step of the
way - and reject the blueprints. An intellectual's approach to
Marxism, maybe, but simplification without either vacuity or
demagoguery is unusual in this genre. Easily the most contemporary
popular introduction to Marx, and probably the best. (Kirkus
Reviews)
In the lucid style and engaging manner that have become his
trademark, Robert L. Heilbroner explains and explores the central
elements of Marxist thought: the meaning of a "dialectical"
philosophy, the usefulness and problems of a " materialist"
interpretation" of history, the power of Marx's "socioanalytic"
penetration of capitalism, and the hopes and disconcerting problems
involved in a commitment to socialism. Scholarly without being
academic, searching without assuming a prior knowledge of the
subject, Dr. Heilbroner enables us to appreciate the greatness of
Mark while avoiding an uncritical stance toward his work.
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