num_pages: 282
description: Written nearly fifty years ago, at a time when the world was still wrestling with the concepts of Marx and Lenin, 
  The Illusion of the Epoch
 is the perfect resource for understanding the roots of Marxism-Leninism and its implications for philosophy, modern political thought, economics, and history. As Professor Tim Fuller has written, this “is not an intemperate book, but rather an effort at a sustained, scholarly argument against Marxian views.”Far from demonizing his subject, Acton scrupulously notes where Marx’s account of historical and economic events and processes is essentially accurate. However, Acton also points out that Marx is generally right about things that were already widely known and accepted in his own time and indeed had been long understood in the nineteenth century. On the other hand, Acton shows that in many cases Marx either is simply wrong or has stated his views so as to render his theories immune to disproof. Acton also explains why the embodiment of Marxist-Leninist theory in an actual social order would require coercive support if it were not, sooner or later, to collapse of its own contradictions.H.B. Acton (1908–1974) taught at Bedford College (London), the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Chicago; was editor of Philosophy, the influential journal of the British Royal Institute of Philosophy; and wrote, among other books, The Morals of Markets (1971; Liberty Fund, 1993) and The Philosophy of Language in Revolutionary France (1959).Click here for a pdf of a brochure featuring The Illusion of Epoch
language: English
title: The Illusion of the Epoch: Marxism-Leninism as a Philosophical Creed
titlecomplete: The Illusion of the Epoch: Marxism-Leninism as a Philosophical Creed
genres: Philosophy, History, Politics
ratings_count: 3
publisher: Liberty Fund, Inc.