Main currents of Marxism
Subtitle: the founders, the golden age, the breakdown
By: Leszek Kołakowski ; translated from the Polish by P.S. Falla.
Contributors: Falla, P. S. 1913-
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 1284
Subjects: Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.; Engels, Friedrich, 1820-1895.; Socialism -- Europe -- History.; Communism -- Europe -- History.
Description: "Drawing on powerful historical and philosophical insight, Main Currents of Marxism traces the intellectual foundations of Marxist thought from Plotinus through Hegel to Lukacs, Sartre, and Mao. Leszek Kolakowski reveals Marxism to be "the greatest fantasy of our century ... an idea that began in Promethean humanism and culminated in the monstrous tyranny of Stalinism." Long before the overwhelming majority of historians, journalists, and intellectuals around the world came to see the devastation wrought by autocratic, state-sponsored socialism, Kolakowski pointed to the shortcomings of a system doomed to failure." "Recognized when it was first published for its profound historical insights and for its exposition of how the Communist hierarchy was quickly corroding from the inside, this forceful work has influenced several generations of scholars and historians. Despite decades of major political change, Main Currents of Marxism remains as accurate and incisive as ever. In a new preface and epilogue, Kolakowski reexamines the collapse of international Communism in light of the last tumultuous years."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Originally published: Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1978.
Table of contents: title: v. 1. The founders; title: v. 2. The golden age; title: v. 3. The breakdown.