Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
Marx, Marxism and Utopia D ARREN W EBB Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000 Reviewed by S AMUEL R. F RIEDMAN As Webb’s citations attest, a small industry of writers have claimed that the collapse of ‘really existing socialism’ puts the burden on socialists to create a model of what their desired society will look like. The horror show that the first successful workers’ revolution turned into is obvious to many millions of people, including worker activists, in every country. We have all experienced the question from those we were working with politically, ‘But why wouldn’t what happened in Russia happen again? And, in any case, what are you really trying to build?’ The natural response, when faced with such questions, is to roll up our sleeves to figure out what the new society will look like. Webb argues that this response is mistaken. He holds – correctly, in my view – that the essence of Marx’s critique of utopian thought was that it pre-empted the proletariat, putting the right to define the goals of the socialist movement into the pens of one or two thinkers. This is wrong in at least two essential ways. First, because the liberation of the
Historical Materialism – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 2004
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.