Reviews : Alastair Davidson, The Theory and Practice of Italian Communism, Vol. I, London, Merlin Press, 1982
Abstract
ReviewsAlastair Davidson, The Theory and Practice of Italian Communism, Vol. I, London, Merlin Press, 1982 SAGE Publications, Inc.1984DOI: 10.1177/072551368400900115 Franco Schiavoni From the very first paragraph of his book, Alastair Davidson unequivocably clarifies the sense and purpose of his project. It is not a matter of engaging in mere historiography or of carrying out a purely scholarly research, which, in the marxist perspective professed by the author, would be impossible by definition and would amount to the worst possible form of political camouflage and bad faith; this book aims at being committed, ideological, and even sectorial, in the sense that it addresses a precisely defined group of readers: "Western Marxists". This history of Italian communism is directed to discovering how Italy's Communists have been so successful and what potential they have for future success. What prompts this research is a belief that Western Marxists need to know why the Italian Communist Party (PCI) has been so successful that world attention is now focussed on it, since _ only through that knowledge will they be able to extract from Italian theory and practice what i-s of universal value and avoid the pitfalls of earlier critical acceptance of 'Leninism and