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Bolshevism at a Deadlock was written Karl Kautsky, one of the
leading Marxist intellectuals of the late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth centuries, in response to the catastrophic failures
of Stalin's first Five Year Plan, which was intended to raise
Russian industry and productivity to equal that of Western Europe.
Kautsky sets out to demonstrate how the repressive autocracy of the
Bolsheviks and the disregard for economic exigencies achieved
nothing more than "the wholesale pauperisation and degradation of
the Russian people", and prophesies the imminent collapse of Soviet
Russia in the face of mass famine, ideological dogmatism and,
ultimately, the failures inherent in the 1917 Revolution itself.
Kautsky's analysis of the situation of Socialist Russia at the
beginning of the troubled 1930s will be of interest to students of
pre-war Soviet political practice, economic history and domestic
policy.
First published in English in 1920, this work is a reissue of
Karl Kautsky's seminal work dealing with the origins and history of
the forces at work in revolutionary epochs, which offers
pathbreaking insights on the development of civilisation.
The opening chapters, dealing with eigthteenth century France,
are of special interest to the student of the French revolution.
The section devoted to the Commune of Paris offers a stimulating
and provocative description of this famous govenment of the working
class.
The reissue of this controversial and extraordinary work will be
welcomed by all those interested in the history of Communism in
particular and the theory and history of revolution in general.
First published in English in 1924 this ambitious work, by the
famous Marxist theoretician Karl Kautsky, aims to provide nothing
less than an "exposition of the methods to introduce socialism"
amongst the capitalist economies of Europe in the post-World War
One era. Looking back on the experiences of the German socialist
movement and looking forwards to the likelihood of a Labour
government in Great Britain, he discusses the problems facing a
labour revolution in Europe, with particular reference to the role
of the middle classes, the transitional period between capitalism
and socialism, and the economic impact of a socialist revolution.
Bolshevism at a Deadlock was written Karl Kautsky, one of the
leading Marxist intellectuals of the late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth centuries, in response to the catastrophic failures
of Stalin's first Five Year Plan, which was intended to raise
Russian industry and productivity to equal that of Western Europe.
Kautsky sets out to demonstrate how the repressive autocracy of the
Bolsheviks and the disregard for economic exigencies achieved
nothing more than "the wholesale pauperisation and degradation of
the Russian people", and prophesies the imminent collapse of Soviet
Russia in the face of mass famine, ideological dogmatism and,
ultimately, the failures inherent in the 1917 Revolution itself.
Kautsky's analysis of the situation of Socialist Russia at the
beginning of the troubled 1930s will be of interest to students of
pre-war Soviet political practice, economic history and domestic
policy.
First published in English in 1924 this ambitious work, by the
famous Marxist theoretician Karl Kautsky, aims to provide nothing
less than an "exposition of the methods to introduce socialism"
amongst the capitalist economies of Europe in the post-World War
One era. Looking back on the experiences of the German socialist
movement and looking forwards to the likelihood of a Labour
government in Great Britain, he discusses the problems facing a
labour revolution in Europe, with particular reference to the role
of the middle classes, the transitional period between capitalism
and socialism, and the economic impact of a socialist revolution.
First published in English in 1920, this work is a reissue of Karl
Kautsky's seminal work dealing with the origins and history of the
forces at work in revolutionary epochs, which offers pathbreaking
insights on the development of civilisation. The opening chapters,
dealing with eigthteenth century France, are of special interest to
the student of the French revolution. The section devoted to the
Commune of Paris offers a stimulating and provocative description
of this famous govenment of the working class. The reissue of this
controversial and extraordinary work will be welcomed by all those
interested in the history of Communism in particular and the theory
and history of revolution in general.
First published in 1925, Karl Kautsky presents a Marxist history of
Christianity and Christian society. Divided into four key sections,
the book begins by considering the personality of Jesus as
portrayed within Pagan and Christian sources and highlighting the
Church's difficulty in presenting a unified and concurrent image of
Jesus and interpretation of His words. Next, Kautsky analyses the
structure of Roman society, with particular emphasis on the
slave-holding system, the Roman State and the historiography of the
period. In the third section, an early history of the Jewish people
is presented, whilst the final section discusses the beginnings of
Christianity and the social struggles present within early
Christian society. This is a fascinating reissue, which will be of
particular interest to students of Church History, Christian
theology and the various interpretations of Jesus.
Karl Kautsky is probably the first Marxist to interest himself both
in the movement and the enigmatic personality of the crucified
prophet. His 1908 book The Foundations of Christianity is a rather
impressive attempt at a Marxist analysis. The book is rather
original, innovative and has been rranslated into nine languages.
Kaustky made his Foundations of Christianity into one of the most
popular Marxist theoretical works. Its popular success is probably
due to the interest of socialist militants to see a vision of the
origins of Christianity which permits the modern workers' movement
to appropriate to itself the figure of Jesus as a prophet and
martyr for the proletarian cause. Kautsky wanted to interpret early
Christianity as a precursor of the contemporary working class
socialist movement. His friend, and later his opponent, Rosa
Luxemburg, in an article of 1905 called "The Church and Socialism
insisted that the first Christian apostles were Communists who
denounced injustice and the cult of the Golden Calf," He
counterposed a materialist account of the new religion against the
Christian mythology and showed the capacity of the Marxist method
to give an account of a complex historical process, interpreting a
religious phenomenon in terms of the class struggle. The book is
divided into four sections: 1) Society at the time of the Roman
Empire: the slave economy, the absolutist forms of the state, the
different manifestations of cultural and religious crisis. 2)
Judaism: the class conflicts of Israelite society and the various
political-religious currents (Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots and
Essene. 3) The beginnings of Christianity: the early Christian
communities, the idea of themessianic Christ and Christian
communism. 4) The fourth section is dedicated to the "personality
of Jesus," According to Kautsky, what distinguishes Jesus'
messianism from the other rebellious Jewish prophets of the era -
all of whom had a strictly national character - is its social
character, its calling as an international redeemer. "Only the
social Messiah, not the national, could transcend the limits of
Judaism," survive the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and,
above all, find a hearing among the poor of all nations. By
associating the hostility of the oppressed classes to the rich with
proletarian solidarity, the messianism of the Christian communities
promised the redemption of the poor, and so it could gain followers
beyond the Jewish world. In the last analysis, Jesus, "the
crucified proletarian Messiah" managed to defeat Rome and conquer
the world, but in the course of this process the Christian movement
suffered an "inverse dialectic": it lost its proletarian and
communist character and was transformed into a state religion,
under the control of a vast dominating and exploiting apparatus -
the Church.
First published in 1925, Karl Kautsky presents a Marxist history of
Christianity and Christian society. Divided into four key sections,
the book begins by considering the personality of Jesus as
portrayed within Pagan and Christian sources and highlighting the
Church's difficulty in presenting a unified and concurrent image of
Jesus and interpretation of His words. Next, Kautsky analyses the
structure of Roman society, with particular emphasis on the
slave-holding system, the Roman State and the historiography of the
period. In the third section, an early history of the Jewish people
is presented, whilst the final section discusses the beginnings of
Christianity and the social struggles present within early
Christian society. This is a fascinating reissue, which will be of
particular interest to students of Church History, Christian
theology and the various interpretations of Jesus.
Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) was the leading theoretician of the
German Social Democratic Party and one of the most prominent public
intellectuals of his time. However, during the twentieth century a
constellation of historical factors ensured that his ideas were
either gradually consigned to near oblivion or downright reviled.
Not only has his political thought been dismissed in non-Marxist
historical and political discourse, but his ideas are equally
discredited in Marxist circles. This book aims to rekindle interest
in Kautsky's ideas by exploring his democratic-republican
understanding of state and society. These essential works from
different points in his career demonstrates how Kautsky's
republican thought was positively influenced by Marx and
Engels—especially in relation to the lessons they drew from the
experience of the Paris Commune.
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