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Marxism, Wars and Revolutions: Essays from Four Decades
Isaac Deutscher is widely recognized as one of the foremost political biographers of the twentieth century, and his full-scale studies of Trotsky and Stalin, translated into many world languages, have played a major role in elucidating the character and fate of the Russian Revolution.
This collection of essays, hitherto unpublished or out of print, provides a clear idea of the range and force of Deutscher’s literary activity over a period of more than thirty years. It also demonstrates his essential consistency of from his sharp denunciation of the first Moscow Trial in 1936, through his resistance to the Cold War tides of the fifties, to his sober analysis of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1966. His fidelity to the Marxist method and firm grasp of socialist history allowed him to penetrate to the core of events without ever falling into the blind apologetics or feverish disavowals that blighted so many left-wing intellectuals of his generation.
Deutscher’s own origins in the Polish communist movement are here reflected in his famous interview on the tragedy of the Polish CP, while his major essay on bureaucracy is one of the few sustained attempts to grapple with this key theoretical and practical problem of the socialist movement.
This volume is designed both as a lasting collection of some of Deutscher’s best-known and most powerful texts, and as an introduction for readers approaching his work for the first time. A specially written preface by Perry Anderson assesses this selection in relation to Deutscher’s overall achievement, and Tamara Deutscher’s introduction passes on to the reader the often fascinating personal background to certain of the essays.
This collection of essays, hitherto unpublished or out of print, provides a clear idea of the range and force of Deutscher’s literary activity over a period of more than thirty years. It also demonstrates his essential consistency of from his sharp denunciation of the first Moscow Trial in 1936, through his resistance to the Cold War tides of the fifties, to his sober analysis of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1966. His fidelity to the Marxist method and firm grasp of socialist history allowed him to penetrate to the core of events without ever falling into the blind apologetics or feverish disavowals that blighted so many left-wing intellectuals of his generation.
Deutscher’s own origins in the Polish communist movement are here reflected in his famous interview on the tragedy of the Polish CP, while his major essay on bureaucracy is one of the few sustained attempts to grapple with this key theoretical and practical problem of the socialist movement.
This volume is designed both as a lasting collection of some of Deutscher’s best-known and most powerful texts, and as an introduction for readers approaching his work for the first time. A specially written preface by Perry Anderson assesses this selection in relation to Deutscher’s overall achievement, and Tamara Deutscher’s introduction passes on to the reader the often fascinating personal background to certain of the essays.
276 pages, hardcover
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
Isaac Deutscher
55 books149 followersIsaac Deutscher was a Polish-born Jewish Marxist writer, journalist and political activist who moved to the United Kingdom at the outbreak of World War II. He is best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin and as a commentator on Soviet affairs. His three-volume biography of Trotsky, in particular, was highly influential among the British New Left.
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March 20, 2011
This collection of essays is, by my quick count, the ninth book by Isaac Deutscher that I've read. I especially liked his piece on George Orwell's 1984, which contained some of the most interesting criticism I've encountered of it. Deutscher questions whether the totally irrational world that Orwell created served, in effect, as escapism from what were in many ways rational problems:
"The shriek, amplified by the 'mass media' of our time, has frightened millions of people. But it has not helped them to see clearly the issues with which the world is grappling; it has not advanced their understanding. It has only increased and intensified the waves of panic and hate that run through the world and obfuscate innocent minds. 1984 has taught millions to look at the conflict between the East and West in terms of black and white, and it has shown them a monster bogy and a monster scapegoat for all the ills that plague mankind....[I]t would be dangerous to blind ourselves to the fact that in the West millions of people may be inclined, in their anguish and fear, to flee from their own responsibility for mankind's destiny and to vent their anger and despair on the giant Bogy-cum-Scapegoat which Orwell's 1984 has done so much to place before their eyes."
"The shriek, amplified by the 'mass media' of our time, has frightened millions of people. But it has not helped them to see clearly the issues with which the world is grappling; it has not advanced their understanding. It has only increased and intensified the waves of panic and hate that run through the world and obfuscate innocent minds. 1984 has taught millions to look at the conflict between the East and West in terms of black and white, and it has shown them a monster bogy and a monster scapegoat for all the ills that plague mankind....[I]t would be dangerous to blind ourselves to the fact that in the West millions of people may be inclined, in their anguish and fear, to flee from their own responsibility for mankind's destiny and to vent their anger and despair on the giant Bogy-cum-Scapegoat which Orwell's 1984 has done so much to place before their eyes."
Displaying 1 of 1 review