Essential works of socialism

by Irving Howe

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0030832632
• ISBN13: 9780030832635
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
• Length: 406 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

All the essentials except how to make it work

By no means a primer on socialism yet not necessarily inappropriate as an introduction: just be ready for some substantial inquiries...and a lack of good answers (which seems clearly to be socialism's failing, not Howe's). Marx and Engels are presented by well-made selections from their works, including part one of "The Communist Manifesto", Engels from "The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844" and several entries by Mark from "Capital" including on commodities. After that, there's plenty to represent the history of the development of socialist thought including recent (post World War II) material. Overall there's a great mix, with challenging essays by such heavyweights as Oscar Wilde, George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, Michael Harrington, and Martin Buber, to name a few. A piece by John Strachey on accumulation stood out for me as not being at all doctrinaire, but it was hardly alone in its freshness. Howe's introduction as well as the final essay in this collection (written with Lewis Coser) offer brief surveys with penetrating insights into the issues socialism raises and the problem it has encountered. The depth of criticism here of socialism in general by Howe seems considerably greater than that of American socialism found in Howe's book "Socialism in America". However, Howe's analysis in both works was, for me, informative and thought-provoking.