Vulgar Marxism : revolutionary politics and the dilemmas of worker education, 1891-1931 / Edward Baring.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baring, Edward, 1980- Author.

Series:

Life of ideas

The life of ideas

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communism and education--History.

Communism and education.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource (317 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2025.

Summary:

"The term "vulgar Marxism" has been used by philosophically minded Marxists to criticize popular readings of the German thinker. Yet, as this illuminating book shows, there was a time when theorists criticized "vulgarity" within Marxist worker education--not because they thought that workers should not be educated, but rather because they thought workers weren't being educated enough. Worker education was one of the largest, most expansive enterprises of Marxist parties across Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as Marxism transformed from a theory about the masses into a theory for the masses. Baring begins his story with pre-WWI German Social Democrats' attempts to create a large-scale educational apparatus, focusing on Karl Kautsky, Eduard Bernstein, and Rosa Luxemburg. He then focuses on the post-WWI "crisis of worker education" and the thinkers who condemned it: Lukács, Korsch, and Gramsci, along with Hendrik de Man. Finally, he examines the "Bolshevization" of European Communist parties in the late 1920s and the reappraisal of pedagogy after 1930, focusing on Perú's José Carlos Mariátegui as a way to think through the importance of Marxist education beyond Europe. Following its globalization and adaptation to local sociopolitical contexts worldwide, the resulting book is nothing less than a rethinking of the intellectual history of Marxism"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The infrastructure of class consciousness, 1891-1917. Marxist theory for a mass party ; Pedagogical debates in German social democracy

Interlude. Lenin's revolutionary lesson

Worker education in crisis, 1917-1931. Georg Lukacs and the dilemmas of vulgarity ; Marxism of, by, and for the people : Karl Korsch and the problem of worker education ; Beyond Marxism? : Hendrik de Man and the psychology of worker education ; Antonio Gransci and the education of an organic intellectual ; José Carlos Mariátegui and the limits of vulgar Marxism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-301) and index.

Print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Baring, Edward, 1980- Vulgar Marxism.

ISBN:

9780226844497

0226844498

OCLC:

1546534667

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license