In response to my response to Jerry Fresia concerning China and Marx, anonymous asks: “What about this letter?”, linking to a
letter written by Marx in 1877. I
followed the link and read the length letter, which I found very interesting, and
in some ways contradictory to what I had said in my post. I did not recall the letter at all, and
wondered whether I had ever read it, so off I went to my shelves. I found it in a deep red volume published by
International Publishers called Marx and
Engels Selected Correspondence: 1846-1895.
Apparently I had in fact read it for it was underlined with marginal
comments. And what had I written at the
top of the letter’s first page?
“This is a very important letter – it must be used to revise
the ‘march of history’ interpretation of historical materialism.”
Hmmm.
The letter is interesting (at least the key graph at the end that I skipped down to in the interest of time). I wdn't be too surprised if Marx perhaps shaded his views on this pt differently in different contexts, but I don't know.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat OT (but of possible interest), picked up a used copy (for a couple of dollars) recently of Bronowski and Mazlish, The Western Intellectual Tradition (1960; pb ed., 1975). I'd seen the bk over the years here and there but never read it. Aimed at students and the "general reader," it appears to be highly, not to say compulsively, readable, if somewhat dated in various respects. The interesting pt in this context is that it runs, as the subtitle says, "from Leonardo to Hegel," stopping short of Marx. No doubt they justify the start-point and end-point in the intro, but still I thought it a bit odd. (I guess you have to stop a book like that somewhere.) Also, while the chapters are quite short, they give a chapter to Robert Owen; I happen to have a soft spot for the Utopian Socialists, but again I thought that an interesting (for lack of a better word) choice. Anyway I haven't gotten v. far in the book yet.
LFC,
ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence! Bronowski and Mazlish’s The Western Intellectual Tradition is one of the texts that I was required to read in my Western Civilization Course during my freshman year (1965) at college. I recently dug it up out of my basement and re-read it cover to cover. It is sitting on my study’s bookshelves as I write. It is a wonderful book. I was in fact amazed to see how compulsive I was as a freshman – every page is full of underscored lines and numerous marginal comments.
Prof. Bronowski was a very brilliant historian and mathematician. There is a DVD series of lectures he gave, titled The Ascent of Man, regarding developments in science and history in Western civilization. I once borrowed it from my local library. He was good friends w/ John von Neumann and relates a humorous story about von Neumann, which, if memory serves related to the fact that von Neumann was a late riser and could not be bothered prior to 12 P.M.
On a separate note, developments in the Mueller investigation are accelerating at a fast pace. Michael Cohen’s revelation in court today that Trump disclosed to him that his business contacts with the Russians continued after Jan. 1, 2016 is potentially explosive. It means that Trump continued to pursue business deals w/ Russia as he was also running for President, with implications about possible reciprocal commitments. If Trump pardons Manafort, it may be enough of an impetus to turn enough of his supporters in the Senate against him. Trump, being the stubborn jackass that he is – he will not resign - may be the first President to be both impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. Hope springs eternal.
I posted the letter anonymously, out of cowardice (I did not have time to add any remarks). -FL
ReplyDeleteF Lengyel.
ReplyDeleteIn other words. you posted the comment anonymously because you were afraid that you might be accused of publishing self-indulgent effluvium?
Or worse.
ReplyDelete