"The ideas of capitalism's most vigorous and eloquent enemy have been enlightening in every era, the author contends, and our current historical situation of free-market extremes suggests that reading Marx may be more important now than ever. Hobsbawm begins with a consideration of how we should think about Marxism in the post-communist era, observing that the features we most associate with Soviet and related regimes--command economies, intrusive bureaucratic structures, and an economic and political condition of permanent was--are neither derived from Marx's ideas nor unique to socialist states. Further chapters discuss pre-Marxian socialists and Marx's radical break with them, Marx's political milieu, and the influence of his writings on the anti-fascist decades, the Cold War, and the post--Cold War period. Sweeping, provocative, and full of brilliant insights, How to Change the World challenges us to reconsider Marx and reassess his significance in the history of ideas."--Publisher's website.

In the Cold War era that dominated the second half of the twentieth century, nobody envisaged that the collapse of the Soviet Union would come from within, still less that it would happen meekly, without global conflagration.In this brilliantly compact, original, engaging book, Stephen Kotkin shows that the Soviet collapse resulted not from military competition but, ironically, from the dynamism of Communist ideology, the long-held dream for "socialism with a human face." The neo-liberal reforms in post-Soviet Russia never took place, nor could they have, given the Soviet-era inheritance in the social, political, and economic landscape. Kotkin takes us deep into post-Stalin Soviet society and institutions, into the everyday hopes and secret political intrigues that affected 285 million people, before and after 1991. He conveys the high drama of a superpower falling apart while armed to the teeth with millions of loyal troops and tens of thousands of weapons of mass destruction. Armageddon Averted vividly demonstrates the overriding importance of history, individual ambition, geopolitics, and institutions, and deftly draws out contemporary Russia's contradictory predicament. --

Löwy's book is the first attempt to analyze, in a systematic way, how the theories of uneven and combined development, and of the permanent revolution &mdash inseparably linked &mdash emerged in the writings of thinkers such as Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky. Such radical reflections permit us to understand modern economic development across continents as a process of ferocious change, in which "advanced" and "backward" elements fuse, come into tension, and collide &mdash and how the resulting ruptures make it possible for the oppressed and exploited to change the world.

Over four decades ago, radical scholars began to suggest a new way of looking at South African society - one that blamed the economic power of those who owned property for the racial bondage of the black majority. Their work, and the debates it triggered, are mostly forgotten, but they and their critics have much to say that sheds lights on today's South African realities. Harold Wolpe was arguably the most influential theorist of this generation. His writings played a major role in a revolution in thought, and his celebrated escape from prison in the 1960s made him a symbol of alternative action. Race, Class and Power clearly and insightfully examines Wolpe's work in the political, intellectual, and social contexts in which it was developed and to which it gave form. Drawing on interviews with those who Wolpe worked with, disagreed with, and inspired, the book also maps his influence on ideas and the culture that emerged in anti-apartheid circles in the 1970s. Harold Wolpe's writings are a prism through which South African society can be viewed, and this book is an intellectual biography both of Wolpe and of South Africa's left. It also assesses and engages with the ongoing impact of Wolpe's ideas into the post-apartheid present. Moreover, it suggests how Wolpe's work can move us towards a way of thinking about and acting upon South Africa's realities differently.

Oscar Handlin is best known as America's leading historian of ethnicity and the immigrant experience in the new nation. In 1961 he produced what was perhaps the first critique of anti-Americanism as an ideological expression of Marxism-Leninismin the schools of higher learning. In his new opening essay to this second edition, he both tells how he was able to perceive the cancer of communist ideology early, and why this new edition is needed now. The Distortion of America is a handbook on avoiding error, a methodological primer on how historians gather evidence, presume witnesses to be reliable or not, and develop forms of verification in the conduct of analysis and research. As such this work is an introduction to the study of history, as well as an examination of specific instances of ideology and mindless passion as ruinous ways to look at America. Handlin shows how social history kept his vision close to the experiences of ordinary people, whose heritage of freedom and dedication to individual liberty was the necessary antidote to academic exaggeration. Six additional chapters supplement those gathered in the earlier collection. Two written in the 1950s describe the forces that later created the economic strength of the United States, while a third treats the problem of race which long contributed to the distortions of America. An account of Yugoslavia before its collapse describes the class divisions responsible for present troubles. By contrast, no inkling of the tensions that would erupt in bloody civil war caught the attention of hundreds of journalists who crowded Sarajevo in 1984. A brief article shows the relevance to China of democracy in the United States. The final new entry is a memorable piece on how the career of Arthur Koestler exemplifies the difficulties of the ex-communist in an unsympathetic environment. These essays illustrate Handlin's working philosophy: "the study of the human past persuades me that, despite the frequent risks of failure, man has the capacity to make order an find purpose in the world in which he lives when he uses the power of his reason to do so."

The unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 signaled the demise of a political and economic system that was widely perceived as durable, the preeminent rival to that of the United States. Less conspicuous than the momentous political transformations were the altered beliefs, aspirations, and illusions of the individuals who had maintained and led that system. In this original interpretation the eminent sociologist Paul Hollander focuses on the human aspects of the failure of Soviet communism. He examines how members of the Soviet political elite, leaders in communist Czechoslovakia and Hungary, high-ranking officials in agencies of control and coercion, and distinguished defectors and exiles experienced the erosion of ideals that undermined the political system they had once believed in.

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 was a benchmark of triumph and a harbinger of tragedy to come. Rather than herald a new era of Cuba joining the world community of nations as a paragon of democracy as many fervently hoped and believed it would, it became instead a new stage in authoritarian rule in the Western hemisphere. For more than a half century since then Cuba has been defined by the capacity of a single family to command and determine the fate of a nation--and to do so with a minimum of opposition. Incredibly, even those professing adhesion to democratic norms have been ready to forgive the dictator his excesses. This volume explains the theory and practice of this absence of internal opposition and the persistence of external support for the Castro family and its entourage. "The Long Night of Dark Intent" is chronological in order, with the author indicating major points in each of the five decades covered. The volume covers five centers of system analysis: economics, politics, society, military, and ideology. Who or what "determines" events and decisions is the stuff of real history. It is precisely due to variability in causal chains in society that we have huge variance in levels of predictability. The course of the Cuban Revolution gives strong support for such an approach to the Castro Era. This is a unique, unflinching account with a strong emphasis on the importance of U.S. policy decisions over time.

Ivan Berend uses a vast range of sources, as well as his own personal experience, to analyze the fortunes of the postwar socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. His comparative approach stretches beyond the confines of economic history to produce a work of political economy, encompassing the cultural and personal forces that have influenced the development of the "Eastern Bloc" countries over the past fifty years. The book is distinguished by its unique combination of time, region and topic, and is a major contribution to the economic history of the twentieth century.

Unless the socialist societies of the East adapt their system to the scientific-technological revolution, as the West has done, they will remain caught in the twentieth century. This is the theme of Silviu Brucan's book on the crisis of world socialism. He contends that these countries are at the crossroads and must make some changes in their political ideology or they will perish. This insightful book written by a veteran communist living in the East, will interest anyone concerned with Soviet studies, Slavic studies, political economy, Marxism, Communism, political sociology, and East-West relations.

Born in 1879, Eugen Varga became the most prominent Marxist economist in the Soviet Union, referred to as 'Stalin's economist.' As the official theorist of the early USSR, Varga was easily one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, yet his ideas are largely unknown in the West. By selecting and translating--often for the first time--some of his most important works, this volume aims to correct the record. Selected Political and Economic Writings offers a wide and representative selection of his works, dating from his entry into the Hungarian Communist Party in 1919 through to his criticisms of John Maynard Keynes in the 1950s. It also includes the entire text of his Economic Problems of the Proletarian Dictatorship, cited by Lenin as the best work on the collapse of the revolutionary government in Hungary. A detailed critical introduction by Varga's biographer, André Mommen, supplies valuable background detail on the circumstances of Varga's work, contextualising it in relation to political events and the development of orthodox economic theory in the USSR.