After socialism : reconstructing critical social thought / Gabriel Kolko.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kolko, Gabriel.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Post-communism.

Post-communism--Economic aspects.

Socialism.

Physical Description:

x, 195 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2006.

Summary:

Does socialism have a future in the twenty-first century? If not, what is the future for progressive politics? After Socialism deals with the collapse of socialism both as an idea and a movement. It scrutinizes the economic and social realities that require a critical but much more intelligent alternative of coping with the enormous, mounting challenges that the world confronts. This is a major contribution to contemporary social and political thought written by one of the world's leading critical historians. Gabriel Kolko asks difficult questions about where the Left can go in a post-Cold War world where neo-liberal policies appear to have triumphed in both the West and the former Soviet bloc. In trying to answer them, he discusses: the origins and development of socialist ideas, the contemporary dynamics of the globalized economy dominated by American military, cultural, and political might, the failures of contemporary capitalism, the poverty and economic and financial instability - in the United States and industrial nations as well as developing nations - that make our contemporary world so precarious.

After Socialism is a synthesis of Kolko's past work and a critical assessment of why and how critical social thought can be reconstructed. While avoiding the temptations of either pessimism or utopianism, Kolko manages to offer an original and practical solution about the way forward for liberal politics.

Contents:

The power of reason : a world without limits

The legacies of socialism : theory

The legacies of socialism : organizational successes, and failures

The role and limits of social theories

Capitalist realities : economic development, the state, and the myths of the market

Capitalist realities : the way the world lives

The future : where and how.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [181]-187) and index.

ISBN:

0415395917

0415395909

0203088190

OCLC:

64453305

Publisher Number:

9780415395908

9780415395915

9780203088197

Online:

Publisher description