Rehabilitate Marx! - (Russian and East European Studies) by Jan Mervart & Jiř & í Rů & zič & ka (Hardcover)

About the Book

A New Interpretation of the Intellectual Roots of the Movement Toward "Communism with a Human Face"

Book Synopsis

Rehabilitate Marx! conceptualizes new forms of socialist modernity during the post-Stalinist era, in the second half of the 1950s and 1960s. After the demise of Stalinism, Czechoslovak intellectuals within the Communist Party realized that the primary challenge they were facing wasn't merely the further development of socialism, which would lead to communism: they would need to reformulate the entire socialist project. These intellectuals gradually abandoned the Marxist orthodoxy of their time and began searching for new interpretations of classic Marxist works that would provide an adequate conceptual framework for addressing contemporary problems. Mervart and Růzička present post-Stalinist thought as an autonomous sphere, showing a world of varying socialist visions.

Review Quotes

Rehabilitate Marx! is an exceptional journey into intellectual history and a leading contribution to understanding post-Stalinist socialism in Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe. Jan Mervart and Jiří Růzička offer a deeply historical account, recovering a plurality of unique tendencies that make up the post-Stalinist period in Czechoslovakia, while highlighting their broader relevance for the socialist 1960s and '70s. A must-read for anyone interested in historical socialism and its intellectual histories in Eastern Europe and beyond.--Zhivka Valiavicharska, Pratt Institute

In the years following the death of Stalin, intellectuals in Eastern Europe--nowhere more so than in Czechoslovakia--sought to refresh Marxist thought and establish a new socialist vision. Mervart and Růzička's absorbing book examines three interwoven schools of thought--Marxist humanism, techno-optimism, and dialectical determinism--and explores the insights and achievements, and the frustrations and failings, of this ill-fated project of renewal. Compelling reading.--David Bakhurst, Queen's University

This important study of post-Stalinist thought between the mid-1950s and 1968 in Czechoslovakia considers it as a coherent intellectual space overcoming the limitations of orthodox Marxism. Through its recovery of reflexivity and mediation, Rehabilitate Marx! articulates a concept of universal humanity that ultimately failed by narrowing it into the nation and modernity. A valuable contribution to the legacy of Marxism through a detailed and analytical history of one of its most important periods.--Ian H. Angus, professor emeritus, Simon Fraser University

About the Author

Jan Mervart (Author)
Jan Mervart is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences. He is the author of several books and is a coeditor of Czechoslovakism (Routledge, 2021) and Karel Kosík and the Dialectics of the Concrete (Brill, 2021). He is a member of the editorial collective of the journal Contradictions.

Jiří Růzička (Author)
Jiří Růzička is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences. He is editor and co-translator of the Czech translation of Karl Korsch's Marxism and Philosophy (Filosofia, 2019) and a member of the editorial collective of the journal Contradictions.