Scan barcode
A review by natlib91
Considerations on Western Marxism by Perry Anderson
4.0
whistle-stop tour going from marx all the way through to mandel. as you can generally rely on in anderson, this is very concise, well-written and even entertaining
the basic account anderson outlines is the very brief rise and protracted fall of the dynamic represented by the later years of the second international, when mass proletarian politics coincided with revolutionary theory. my use of the phrase 'second international' is even probably a bit misleading, as anderson points out that lenin, luxemburg's writings were all written, translated and popularised in different orders and rates, meaning there are long periods in which debates contemporary marxists might understand as taking place in the 'real time' of the publication record are in fact missing each other by months or years. anderson's particularly good on the chronology here. the opening chapters are the first time i've read someone on the shortcomings of the body of theory which proceeded this period in a way that seems correct, i.e. what marx gets wrong, as well as the lapses into pessimism, cultural analysis and academic philosophy that characterises much of what comes after
lenin emerges as the hero of the piece, representing as he does the first figure capable of bringing his theories into effect in his construction of the world's first worker's state, and while anderson notes where trotsky was right, he refreshingly does not go in for beatifying him, but draws real, non-moralising attention to his shortcomings and misdiagnoses. the frankfurt school and the intellectual milieu most readily summoned up when one reads the phrase 'western marxism' are the villains, for their obscurantism, distance from the working class and preference for pre, or anti-Hegelian philosophy, his take-down of althusser's philosophy, presented here as an attempt to marxify leibniz, with science doing the work formerly undertaken by god perceiving itself, is very satisfying
the major shortcoming is pointed to the title, western marxism does indeed entail a non-discussion of maoism, marxist currents within third-worldism, there are only bits here on the peasantry or underdevelopments that could be better contextualised
the basic account anderson outlines is the very brief rise and protracted fall of the dynamic represented by the later years of the second international, when mass proletarian politics coincided with revolutionary theory. my use of the phrase 'second international' is even probably a bit misleading, as anderson points out that lenin, luxemburg's writings were all written, translated and popularised in different orders and rates, meaning there are long periods in which debates contemporary marxists might understand as taking place in the 'real time' of the publication record are in fact missing each other by months or years. anderson's particularly good on the chronology here. the opening chapters are the first time i've read someone on the shortcomings of the body of theory which proceeded this period in a way that seems correct, i.e. what marx gets wrong, as well as the lapses into pessimism, cultural analysis and academic philosophy that characterises much of what comes after
lenin emerges as the hero of the piece, representing as he does the first figure capable of bringing his theories into effect in his construction of the world's first worker's state, and while anderson notes where trotsky was right, he refreshingly does not go in for beatifying him, but draws real, non-moralising attention to his shortcomings and misdiagnoses. the frankfurt school and the intellectual milieu most readily summoned up when one reads the phrase 'western marxism' are the villains, for their obscurantism, distance from the working class and preference for pre, or anti-Hegelian philosophy, his take-down of althusser's philosophy, presented here as an attempt to marxify leibniz, with science doing the work formerly undertaken by god perceiving itself, is very satisfying
the major shortcoming is pointed to the title, western marxism does indeed entail a non-discussion of maoism, marxist currents within third-worldism, there are only bits here on the peasantry or underdevelopments that could be better contextualised