The “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” from Marx to Lenin
Could Lenin, Trotsky, Kautsky, and other prominent Marxists have misunderstood what Marx meant by the phrase “dictatorship of the proletariat”? In this engrossing study, Hal Draper strips away layers of misinterpretation to show that they did indeed misunderstand, and then proceeded to build elaborate ideological constructs on this warped base. … | more |
Development, Crises, and Alternative Visions
Third World Women’s Perspectives
This book synthesizes and analyzes three decades of economic, political, and cultural policies and politics toward third world women. Focusing on the impact of the current global economic and political crises — debt, famine, militarization, and fundamentalism — the authors show how, through organization, poor women have begun to mobilize creative and effective development strategies to pull themselves and their families out of immiserating circumstances. … | more |
Marxism and Philosophy is Karl Korsch’s masterwork. In it he argues for a reexamination of the relationship between Marxist theory and bourgeois philosophy, and insists on the centrality of the Hegelian dialectic and a commitment to revolutionary praxis. Although widely attacked in its time, Marxism and Philosophy has attained a place among the most important works of twentieth-century Marxist theory, and continues to merit critical reappraisal from scholars and activists today.… | more |
Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, Vol III: The Dictatorship of the Proletariat
In this third volume of his definitive study of Karl Marx’s political thought, Hal Draper examines how Marx, and Marxism, have dealt with the issue of dictatorship in relation to the revolutionary use of force and repression, particularly as this debate has centered on the use of the term “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Writing with his usual wit and perception, Draper strips away the layers of misinterpretation and misinformation that have accumulated over the years to show what Marx and Engels themselves really meant by the term.… | more |
Messages from Architecture
This is a highly original volume of architectural essays. On a base drawing of the art and craft of modern architecture, Harris Stone superimposes various tracings of streets, buildings, and the people who use them. He takes up the compelling issues in modern architecture as a movement, including the relationships of industrial technology to the tradition of handcrafted work, the design to the construction process, and monumental buildings to the architectural vernacular. Throughout he focuses on the dialectic between forward-thrusting and backward-leaning tendencies within the modern movement. … | more |
The Politics of Sexuality
This provocative anthology brings together a diverse group of well-known feminist and gay writers, historians, and activists. They are concerned not only with current sexual issues — abortion, pornography, reproductive and gay rights — but they also raise a host of new issues and questions: How, and in what ways, is sexuality political? Is the struggle for sexual freedom a complement to other struggles for liberation, or will it detract from them? Has the sexual revolution diminished or enriched the lives of women? … | more |
Helps us to better understand the dangers of U.S. nuclear strategy, and reminds us that is is a strategy we can resist.… | more |
The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays
This classic collection of essays by E.P. Thompson, one of England’s most renowned socialist voices, remains a staple text in the history of Marxist theory. The bulk of the book is dedicated to Thompson’s famous polemic against Louis Althusser and what he considers the reductionism and authoritarianism of Althusserian structuralism. In lively and erudite prose, Thompson argues for a self-critical and unapologetically humanist Marxist tradition. Also included are three essays of considerable importance to the development of the New Left.… | more |
Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, Vol II: The Politics of Social Classes
This is the second installment of Hal Draper’s exhaustive and incomparable treatment of Marx’s political theory, policy, and practice. In forceful and readable language, Draper ranges through the development of the thought of Marx and Engels on the role of classes in society.… | more |
Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, Vol I: State and Bureaucracy
Volume I of Hal Draper’s definitive and masterful study of Marx’s political thought, which focuses on Marx’s attitude toward democracy, the state, intellectuals as revolutionaries, and much, much more.… | more |