Marx's Rebellion Against Lenin - by Norman Levine (Hardcover)

About the Book

"'Marx's rebellion against Lenin' is representative of the contemporary revitalization of the thought of Marx. It fulfils this task in three ways. First, it overthrows the dialectical materialism of Engels and of Stalinist Bolshevism by exploring 18th-century historical thought and illustrating how these enlightenment historians and political theorists first explored methods of historical explanation that were later adopted by Marx. It is shown that contrary to the theory of Stalinist Bolshevism, Hegel was a vital influence on Marx. Second, Levine's book represents Marx as an exponent of classical humanism. Marx did not define communism as a form of materialism, as economic egalitarianism, but rather related communism to the classical ethics of Aristotle, to the Aristotelian ideas of polis citizenship and the ethics of distributive justice. Third, it is argued that the 17th- and 18th-century enlightenment was not simply a liberal center extolling property, individual rights and capitalism. Instead it is shown that it was divided between an enlightenment center and an enlightenment left, with the enlightenment left challenging the domination of capitalism and private property"--

Book Synopsis

Marx's Rebellion Against Lenin, by negating the Leninist-Stalinist theory of dialectical materialism and tracing Marx's political philosophy to the Classical Humanism of Aristotle, overthrows the stultifying entrapment of Stalinist Bolshevism and contributes to the revitalization of Marx's method.

About the Author

Norman Levine's research on Marx has led him to publish five books and 36 journal articles. He has received research funding from many organisations the Fulbright Scholarship Fund, the American Philosophical Society, The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Throughout his academic career Levine has presented lectures at Cambridge University, the University of Frankfurt-am-Oder and presently lectures on an annual basis at Beijing University.