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Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders, the Golden Age, the Breakdown
Renowned philosopher Leszek Kolakowski was one of the first scholars to reveal both the shortcomings and the dangers posed by communist regimes. He now presents, for the first time in one paperback volume, his definitive Main Currents of Marxism A prophetic work, according to the Library of Congress, that provides the most lucid and comprehensive history of the origins, st...more
Paperback, 1284 pages
Published
January 1st 2008
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published 1977)
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Review of the First Book of Three, The Founders:
It is easy to understand the allure of Marxism: at a time when Western Europe was groaning under the weight of social disparity, injustice, and poverty, when the few had so much and the rest so little, when an increase in the output of production meant a lowering of worker's wages and the regular capitalist cycles of boom and bust were wreaking havoc on national economies, Marx and Engels put forward a series of philosophical and economic...more
It is easy to understand the allure of Marxism: at a time when Western Europe was groaning under the weight of social disparity, injustice, and poverty, when the few had so much and the rest so little, when an increase in the output of production meant a lowering of worker's wages and the regular capitalist cycles of boom and bust were wreaking havoc on national economies, Marx and Engels put forward a series of philosophical and economic...more
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A brilliant history of Marxism, from its founders through the disintegration of Marxist thought in the early 1980s. Yes--- Marx is getting a second look here in an era of global economic meltdown, and that's a good thing, if only as an antidote to the free-market triumphalist vapourings of the last generation. But Kolakowski reminds us of what Marxism became in the 20th-century and how easily what began as a call for justice became a system that destroyed tens of millions of lives and left easte...more
This is obviuosely a refrence book, and nobody read and finish a book like this in one go. If even you do that, you would not get much out of it.
What I was intersted to share with you is that I start to look at this book in 3 different time with different approaches since 1987-88.
First, with suspicious approach looking at author as non-bliever and revisionist. In this time I kept my guard always tight, tried to find out and establish where he has gone wrong. I used to learn most abo...more
What I was intersted to share with you is that I start to look at this book in 3 different time with different approaches since 1987-88.
First, with suspicious approach looking at author as non-bliever and revisionist. In this time I kept my guard always tight, tried to find out and establish where he has gone wrong. I used to learn most abo...more
The great value of this book is that despite its title it goes into many smaller currents of Marxist thought beyond the big ones of orthodox Social Democracy, Leninism, and Stalinism. The reason for the disjunction is that the book was originally issued in three volumes, each one being the size of a normal book. That amount of space gives you room to classify things as "Main Currents" that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do. I originally read this in its three volume form at a commun...more
Leszek Kolakowski was to the study of Marxism what Gibbon was to the study of the Roman Empire, what Darwin was to the study of evolutionary biology, and what Einstein was to the study of general relativity. Main Currents of Marxism is a brilliant, dazzling, monumental work, which shows how Marxism came about, from what philosophical schools it was spawned, the nature and impact of concomitant theories of socialism and socialist philosophy, and how Marxism and socialism fared when put into actio...more
Every theistic Marxist in the world should educate themselves with Kolakowski's works. I literally expect to be a religious yet critical person by reading his works. This books comprises his previously separated 3 volumes of The Founder, The Golden Age & the Decline of Marxism. Read Kolakowski and be a Refusenik Christian!
I can't read this entire book since it's a huge tome and deeply philosophical which isn't my forte. What I have read was extremely well written and interesting. This author seemed to have covered every possible thinker who influenced it. It might be the ultimate book on Marxism.
John
marked it as to-read
Not for the faint of heart. This book summaries the antecedents, expressions of Marxism and Marxist thought in every variation imaginable, and they were legion. The writing is clear, lucid, but the content dense, and technical. Best read by those with at least some elementary knowledge of ancient and modern Western philosophy. I will also note that I have attempted to read this work several times over the last 30 years or so, and haven't succeded in completing all 1300 or so pages, but I've ...more
An amazing work. It deals with every major Marxist thinker, as well as articulating a detailed history of the theoretical lineage of Marxism.
i think this is the best book about Marx and Marxism.
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