Will it make me a communist?
In every city and every nationFrom Lake Geneva to the Finland Station
>>25199161They got the line from reading the book.
>>25199104Well written, not dry at all, and aimed at realizing you, as a middle class American intellectual (in 1930) have revolutionary potential.But it was already out of date when published in 1940, just horrible timing for a book on the topic. Wilson became disillusioned with the Soviet Union while writing it and the momentum of arriving at the Finland Station always has a countercurrent of him knowing it will go to shitI very much recommend the article by Louis Menand that the nyrb edition has as a foreword, he sums it up better than I could. I'd still recommend Finland Station for the writing and the insights into the personalities it contains but if you are interested in the topic you should read another history besides Final point Lenin is definitely the hero but most of it concerns Marx (whom Wilson disliked) and you start with Michelet and other Frenchmen, so if you only want Lenin this gives you a hefty dose but takes some time to get there
>>25199104Only if you suffer brain damage while reading.
>>25199770>I very much recommend the article by Louis Menand that the nyrb edition has as a foreword, he sums it up better than I could.Thank you
>>25199770>Final point Lenin is definitely the hero but most of it concerns Marx (whom Wilson disliked) and you start with Michelet and other Frenchmen, so if you only want Lenin this gives you a hefty dose but takes some time to get thereI'd like the whole arc, including the little-knowns and forgotten ones, which it seems I'll get. Thanks again.
>>25199770I guess you could read it as the opening acts of a tragedy, much like Kolakowski's Founders/Golden Age/Breakdown division.
>>25200222>MARXISM: The Founders>Marx and EngelsMARXISM: The Golden Age>Death of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky wait in Swiss cafés for the glorious socialist revolution to happen in Germany. Lenin nearly pees his pants with anticipation.>MARXISM: The Breakdown>Lenin is disappointed to find the revolution happening in Russia. Quashes the revolution, dies, Stalin tells everyone to shut up. The End.
>>25200324The first hundred pages are the entire history of Western philosophy. There are chapters on almost every obscure variant of pre-WW2 Marxism. Don't get your chud knickers in a knot, Kolakowski is an anti-communist philosopher.
>>25199104Read this afterwards to de-commify yourself.
>>25199104If you can’t read about the history of Marxist thought without being turned into a Marxist then perhaps you deserve to be one at the end of the day, them being so into historical inevitability and all
>>25199770>you start with Michelet and other Frenchmenp sure it starts with gracchus babeuf but it was more than 20 years ago since i read it lol damn i am old
>>25200222I hate how this is out of print. Whats an updated equivalent?
>>25200347Kek, thanks.
>>25200800Isn't the new combined edition in print? I read digital desu.
>>25199770>I very much recommend the article by Louis Menandhttps://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/archive/rgroups/2007-08-chicago/wilsonedmund_finlandstation_menandintro.pdf
>>25200800Isn't it showing in stock for you?https://www.amazon.com/Main-Currents-Marxism-Founders-Breakdown/dp/0393329437
>>25201258On paperback though. I'll get that later. Where's the digital version or did it go the way of the dinosaur like For My Legionnaires?
>>25201264PDF from the usual places
>>25200341*Laughs in Russian*
>>25199104I hope not
Not at all. The scholarship while interesting is seriously out of date but the book is much more concerned with introducing people to the tradition of revolutionary writing in Europe. The early bits about the French revolution are by far the best .
>>25201465I guess that's all best I can do. is there anything else like it?
>>25200347Dangerously based
He had some nice things to say about the national socialist movement in Germany at the time
