How to Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism
Eric Hobsbawm
How to Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism
In the 162 years since Karl Marx's Das Kapital was published, the doctrine that bears his name has been embraced by millions in the name of equality, and just as dramatically has fallen from grace with the retreat of communism from the western world. But as the free market reaches its extreme limits in the economic and environmental fallout, a reassessment of capitalism's most vigorous and eloquent enemy has never been more timely. In this book Eric Hobsbawm provides an overview of Marxism. He investigates its influences and analyses the spectacular reversal of Marxism's fortunes over the past thirty years.
3.3 out of 5 based on 8 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Society, Politics & Philosophy |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
480 |
| RRP |
£25.00 |
| Date of Publication |
January 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-1408702871 |
| Publisher |
Little, Brown |
| |
In the 162 years since Karl Marx's Das Kapital was published, the doctrine that bears his name has been embraced by millions in the name of equality, and just as dramatically has fallen from grace with the retreat of communism from the western world. But as the free market reaches its extreme limits in the economic and environmental fallout, a reassessment of capitalism's most vigorous and eloquent enemy has never been more timely. In this book Eric Hobsbawm provides an overview of Marxism. He investigates its influences and analyses the spectacular reversal of Marxism's fortunes over the past thirty years.
Reviews
The Financial Times
Francis Wheen
"To anyone under 50, this book — with its lauding of Lenin and trashing of “dissidents” (the inverted commas are Hobsbawm’s), and its restaging of old academic disputes — will seem either incomprehensible or unpalatable ... Even so, Hobsbawm’s own lucid intelligence shines through the noxious 20th-century fog, especially in a couple of chapters on that enduringly interesting thinker Antonio Gramsci. And he makes his central point — that Marx will endure as long as capitalism does — so forcefully that I hope it will inspire younger writers to salvage something from the wreckage."
21/01/2011
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The Independent
Andrew Gamble
"His book is not a comprehensive history of Marxism, but it provides many of the elements of one. It also shines new light on Hobsbawm's own personal understanding of Marxism. His interpretation is predominantly historical rather than theoretical."
21/01/2011
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The Guardian
Stefan Collini
"The "tales" of the subtitle may be a nervous publisher's attempt to make the contents sound more beguiling to readers who might be thought to be deterred by "essays" or "studies", but fortunately the term does not in this case signal colourful biographical chat or off-beat narratives. The essays are analytical and synoptic and none the worse for that — their sheer intellectual quality makes them more compelling than any sexed-up "tales" could be."
22/01/2011
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The Independent on Sunday
Amol Rajan
"He repeats the claim that Russia was too backward to produce the socialist dream in which Marx believed, corrupted as it was by Asiatic sentiments. This is the very orientalism that many of Hobsbawm's estranged comrades on the left spent years campaigning against ... For all that, this is a book anyone interested in politics could and should devour. It is charmingly optimistic and constantly lucid, and contains the distilled wisdom of a great thinker, thinking about a great thinker."
20/02/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
Ben Wilson
"Some of the chapters are very good introductions to Marxism for the general reader, but someone who wants to learn about it for the first time is likely to be frustrated. Many of the essays are aimed at, and will only be enjoyed by, readers who already have a good grounding in Marx. Those who want to learn how to change the world will be equally frustrated. This is a book of serious ideas, not of politics."
14/01/2011
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The Sunday Times
Dominic Sandbrook
"...readers hoping for a primer in how to overthrow the bourgeoisie or even a basic introduction to Marx will be disappointed: much of this book is old-fashioned intellectual history, with few concessions to the casual reader and virtually nothing about Marx’s life. Some chapters, indeed, such as Marx on pre-Capitalist Formations, read almost like long theological digressions. Despite the accusations of his critics, Hobsbawm is not merely a starry-eyed hagiographer."
09/01/2011
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The New Statesman
John Gray
"A vast silence surrounds the realities of communism, a refusal to engage which led the late Tony Judt to conclude that Hobsbawm had "provincialised himself". It is a damning judgement, but one that the present volume vindicates. When he can bring himself to address the subject of the Soviet experience, Hobsbawm's comments are offhand and conventional."
20/01/2011
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The Observer
Nick Cohen
"I normally say of Hobsbawm "he's a great man but…" But you have to take his communism as part of the package. But you must understand how he was shaped by the 1930s before you can appreciate him. I cannot be so even-handed with the airbrushing of atrocity in How to Change the World. The "but" is too big. It overshadows all the good in him."
06/02/2011
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