- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (2 July 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0415198771
- ISBN-13: 978-0415198776
- Product Dimensions: 2.4 x 1.6 x 0.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 817,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
""The Algebra of Revolution offers a fresh and superbly clarifying account of the major developments in classical Marxism. It presents this account in terms that a wide range of readers will be able to understand.."
-William Keach, Brown University
--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.
-William Keach, Brown University
--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.
Review
""The Algebra of Revolution offers a fresh and superbly clarifying account of the major developments in classical Marxism. It presents this account in terms that a wide range of readers will be able to understand.."
-William Keach, Brown University
-William Keach, Brown University
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First Sentence
Hegel's name has often come to the lips of marxists during great crises in history or at crucial turning points in the development of marxism. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Hegel's name has often come to the lips of marxists during great crises in history or at crucial turning points in the development of marxism. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Of the countless accounts of Marxism out there, this is arguably one with particular resonance today. Rees places his critique in the context of the failure of some of the most influential trends in socialist theory and practice (from Kautsky to Althusser), culminating in the post-war retreat of Marxist theory in the face of postmodernist conservatism.
Rees attempt to demonstrate that this failure as not a failure of Marx's theory, but rather the failure of many on the Left to understand it, particularly to understand it in the context of the dialectical method. In a way this is reminiscent of Lenin's critique - where he claimed that '...without having thoroughly studied and understood the whole of Hegels Logic...none of the Marxists have understood Marx.'
In short; Rees summarises Hegel's philosophy, Marx's critique of it and the development of material dialectic, how Marxists have subsequently interpreted it and the significance of those interpretations to both theory and practice.
Although this may sound heavy going for the uninitiated, it is however very assessable, and addresses some of the basic questions we might ask - what am I? How do I change? How am I related to the world outside me? why is the world the way it is? can I change the world? if so, how? At the heart of Marx's philosophy is an attempt to answer these questions and others, and a critical aspect to understanding this philosophy is the dialectic - and this is the core of Rees's book. In the very simplest form - contradiction and change i.e. you are both individual and part of humanity, nature shapes you but you also shape nature, it's a world of immense wealth but also extreme poverty, economic stability is countered by unpredictable crisis, it's a world where one stealth bomber is worth 3 times it's own weight in gold but a human life is often worthless. why these contradiction? Why do things suddenly change?
When we consider (as Rees does) postmodernism and the likes of Baudrillards (extreme perhaps, but illustrates the 'logic' of) scepticism, leading to a claim that the gulf war of 1991 didn't take place. And when such idealism offer little or no hope of explaining or creating a better world but rather add to its woes - It would seem, more than ever, that a coherent defence of Marxism and its method is required. Rees makes a invaluable contribution to this task, in a lucid defence of the revolutionary tradition that at its heart has Marx's dialectical method.
Critically, Rees puts forward; not a dogmatic ideology, but rather a vision of how Marx's methods are only really understood and verified through our understanding of their application in history and through their continual application here and now in the real world, both in theory and practice, the ultimate proof being the resolution of real contradictions i.e. where there is enough food for everyone, no one starves. Where humans have the means to create great wealth, its shared by everyone. And where the fundamental will is a will to life, we make hospitals and not bombs.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Library Binding
Up until reading this book I had some awareness that the dialectic involved something to do with a full grown oak tree and an acorn, which somehow explains the world!?!? However, Rees' clear and simple style makes clear what can otherwise be a very bewildering subject. Given the increasing and unexpectedly complex nature of the world these days following September 11th it is essential to have a clear guide to help one through the confusing turbulence! A highly essential book!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After an introduction addressing the "contradictions of contemporary capitalism" and giving an outline of Rees's understanding of the dialectic, successive chapters address the dialectic in Hegel, Marx and Engels; the "First crisis of Marxism" (covering Bernstein, Kautsky, Plekhanov and Luxemburg); Lenin; the Hungarian communist Georg Lukács (and the Italian Antonio Gramsci); and Trotsky. In relation to each author or group of authors the use of dialectical argument is explored, together with the context in which the author is using it. A final brief conclusion deploys the work done in the book to criticise very briefly French Stalinist theorist Louis Althusser, the 'post-modernist' theorists who took Althusser's critique of Engels as a starting point and the 'analytical Marxists' Gerry Cohen and Jon Elster.
Rees's book is quite clearly the best currently available introduction to the Marxist dialectic in English, as well as being a serious study of controversial issues. Here the biographical method enables Rees to make philosophical ideas clearer by putting them in the contexts of their authors' times and political engagements. I would still recommend the book as fundamental reading for Marxists.
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