The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-06-02
Max Beer: General History of
Socialism and Social Struggles"
BY HERMAN DUNcKER
(BerIln)


(BerIln)
Note-The terms socialism and
Communism are here used inter-
changeably.
A HISTORY of socialism has
L n been a long felt and urgent want
in the modern working class move
ment. However, it quickly proved it.
self to be an undertaking demanding
great preparatory study and above all
the possibility of prolonged and I'M
disturbed scientific work When even
bourgeois writer's in their peaceful
studies have not been successful in
completing such a work how is it to
come from the ranks of a fighting
party? In the beginning of the nine
ties the at that time still revolution
airy German social-democratic party
had already made a great step to-
wards the issue of a comprehensive
history of socialism. 1t as to repres-
ent the collective work of the best
Marxists of the International. PIE
chanov, .Lafargue, Kautsky, Mehring,
Bernstein and others were won for
the idea, but the work remained a
torso, tho a very valuable one. Kaut-
sky's Pioneers of Socialism" and
Mehring's History Of the German
Social Democracy" developed later
from this.
There existed also various histor-
ical monographs-very unequal in
their execution, dealing with persons,
events and movements in the history
of socialism in the German language
(whith which we are exclusively deal
ing here, but there was lacking a COM
prehensive history of socialism, set
ting itself the task of following the
whole development of socialist ideo-
logy and social revolutionary move
ments thru the history of mankind.
Condemns S. DIS
DY extremely industrious and con-
- scientious work in the years 1920
% a work has been completed which
fills this gap. M. Beer, known as a
Marxist writer by a series of capable
works upon the history of socialism,
has issued General History of So
cialism and Social Struggles in five
volumes published by the Verlag fur
Sozialwissenschaft (Berlin). In 1924
these five parts were issued in one
volume Of $40 pages.
This work which we can conscient-
iously recommend to all comrades,
caused one or two surprises in the
form of its appearance alone. First
! of all it is astonishing that precisely
the Verlag fur Sozialwissenschaft in
the midst of the trivialities with which
1t is in the habit of feeding the book
market, and having regard to the so
cial democratic camoufage manoeu-
vers, with which this house usually
accompanies its publications, should
have issued such serious and scient-
ific work. But much more astonishing
is the fact that this publishing house,
behind which Parvus and other fiery
anti-Communists stand-a semi-ofii-
cial publishing house of the German
social-democratic party--presents in
the Beer book a positively annihilat-
ing Communist criticism Of the Ger
man s. d. p. and the Second Inter
national.
Money Doesn't Smell"
XLTE do not know whether perhaps
w the Barmat orgies in Schwannen'
werder or such like pleasures INDUCED
in by the publishing house directors
and with them the whole party leader
ship OF the German social-democratic
party, have so much logged their
brains that they simply failed to
notice what a Bolshevik cuckoo's egg
was being Matched In their otherwise
so respectable nest. but for this good
joke we are prepared TO forgive Com
rade Beer for having so long delayed
in taking up an open attitude for Com