How to Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism [Hardcover]

I think the cover and title of this book are a bit misleading. The book certainly doesn't contain any blueprint for 'changing the world'. What it does contain is a collection of essays written between 1956 and 2009, most never previously published before in English, many considerably extended, that provide a history of both Marx and Marxism.

The book is divided into two sections. Part 1 is entitled 'Marx and Engels' and consists of 'Marx Today', 'Marx, Engels and pre-Marxian Socialism', 'Marx, Engels and Politics', 'On Engels' The Condition of the Working Class', 'On the Communist Manifesto', 'Discovering the Grundrisse', 'Marx on pre-Capitalist Formations' and 'The Fortunes of Marx's and Engels' Writings'.

Part 2 - 'Marxism' - includes 'Dr Marx and the Victorian Critics', 'The Influence of Marxism 1880-1914', 'In the Era of Anti-fascism 1929-45', 'Gramsci', 'The Reception of Gramsci', 'The Influence of Marxism 1945-83', 'Marxism in Recession 1983-2000' and finally 'Marx and Labour: the Long Century'.

I have to admit I found some of the essays pretty hard work. 'The Fortunes of Marx's and Engels' Writings' looks at the publication histories of the works, how they have developed (for example, the MEGA or 'Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe' projects), the changing fates of the works in relation to the rise and fall of communist states and parties. A bit dry.

But, on the other hand, the second essay, 'Marx, Engels and pre-Marxian Socialism', is a fascinating contextualisation of the thoughts of Marx and Engels. Generally, as Hobsbawm points out, 'the origins can be found in French socialism, German philosophy and British political economy' (P34). Looking at these in some detail well illustrates the foundations of Marx's and Engels' thoughts.

The second section I found generally much more interesting. The essay 'In the Era of Anti-fascism 1929-45' considers how the growth of Marxism in the 'Age of Catastrophe' was a response to the Great Depression and the rise of fascism. As Hobsbawm says 'The radicalisation of intellectuals in the 1930s was rooted in a response to the traumatic crisis of capitalism in the early years of this decade' (P266) and '...the threat of fascism was far more than merely political...If fascism stamped out Marx, it equally stamped out Voltaire and John Stuart Mill.' (P268)

The two essays on Gramsci are also fascinating, partly because of the ideas themselves but also as an illustration of the way Marx's ideas can be developed, extended and modified. And, in the same way that Marx's ideas have spread, the developments of those ideas might also be propagated.

In 'The Influence of Marxism 1945-83', Hobsbawm charts the intellectual impact of Marxism. As he says, 'There are not many thinkers whose name alone suggests major transformations of the human intellectual universe. Marx is among them, together with such figures as Newton, Darwin and Freud.' (P347)

This was a period that saw huge increases in secondary and university education, the radical movements of the 1960s, the synthesis of Marxist ideas with structuralism, psychoanalysis, existentialism (think Althusser, Lacan, Merleau-Ponty, the Frankfurt School et al). But this explosion of Marxian theory perhaps held within it the seeds of it's own destruction. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of radical neo-liberal economics, post-modern relativism are all considered in 'Marxism in Recession 1983-2000'.

The final section brings things almost right up-to-date. If Marxism has been discredited, so too has capitalism in its latest crisis. Hobsbawm suggests that '[s]ince the 1980s it has been evident that the socialists...were left without their traditional alternative to capitalism...But the believers in the 1973-2008 reductio ad absurdum of market society are also left helpless. A systematic alternative system may not be on the horizon, but the possibility of a disintegration, even a collapse, of the existing system is no longer to be ruled out.' (P418)

Hobsbawm points out that we have not reached 'The End of History'. Marxist-based analyses can still be productive and are still being produced - think of David Harvey's The Enigma of Capital. It is becoming increasingly clear that capitalism as it is currently constituted is not sustainable, in all senses of the word. As such, Hobsbawm's book serves as a timely reminder of the history, the depth and sophistication of Marx's analyses and perhaps provides a pointer to the future of Marxist inspired thought and action.

Interestingly, a young Egyptian protester in Tahrir Square, interviewed by Jeremy Paxman a couple of days ago, claimed she was a 'revolutionary socialist'...

Professor Eric Hobsbawm, perhaps the world's most famous living Communist intellectual, hardly needs any introduction. His great age has not diminished the impact of his works or their popularity, and for good reason. It may therefore disappoint some to learn that this most recent publication is not a wholly new production. This despite its somewhat incongruous title ("How To Change The World: Tales of Marx and Marxism"), and its equally silly cover with Ernesto Guevara on the front, whom Hobsbawm generally dislikes. Instead, it is a collection of essays and prefaces hitherto either unpublished entirely or unpublished in English, having been written for his German and Italian publications. The fact alone that these are other major intellectual languages Hobsbawm is entirely familiar with despite being a native speaker of English does him credit among his colleagues.

Perhaps somewhat unorthodox in my judgement on Hobsbawm, while I think he is an excellent writer and a very good social historian, I do not think his political history or his political analysis worth much. He has been consistently mediocre when it comes to writing about practical politics, especially those of the last century, as shown also in his memoirs. I was therefore very pleased to see that this book concerns itself entirely - with the exception of the last chapter - with the history of ideas, the discipline Hobsbawm commands best. The various essays in this collection, ranging from notes on the prehistory and the contemporary reception of Marxism to musings on Gramsci and Marxist thought in the postwar world, are all concerned with Marxism as one major intellectual influence and current in the history of ideas. This is as it should be, because it allows Hobsbawm the necessary distance as well as giving him the freedom to exercise the kind of subtle and nuanced reflection on the nature and spread of ideas in history and their effect on politics that has made him justly famous. While this is therefore by all means a very intellectual book and certainly one step removed from any practical political question (even historical ones), it is a delight to read for those who value ideas and their history for their own sake. Some of the chapters, such as "Marx on Pre-Capitalist Formations" and "Dr Marx and the Victorian Critics" are so good that despite their considerable length they make the reader want them to go on for much longer. What greater praise for the historian?

I agree that the title and cover are misleading. No, I wasn't expecting instructions on how to change the world; but I was expecting some discussion of the way Marx and Marxists thought they were going to do that (or, indeed, did it). The object of the book seems to be to contextualise various aspects of Marxian history, without telling us much about the aspects themselves - it's characteristic that several of the chapters were originally introductions to original texts. I had hoped that an historian of Hobsbawm's experience would provide, here, a useful introduction to Marxist theory, but this is almost entirely avoided.

Incidentally I found the writing awkward in places. This seemed particularly true of the early chapters, but maybe I just got used to it.