Citizen Marx : republicanism and the formation of Karl Marx's social and political thought / Bruno Leipold.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leipold, Bruno, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.

Marx, Karl.

Republicanism.

Communism.

Philosophy, Marxist.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xviii, 418 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"A compelling and comprehensive analysis of Marx's social and political thought, primarily as it relates to his underappreciated republicanism"-- Provided by publisher.

"The first book to offer a comprehensive exploration of Marx's relationship to republicanism, arguing that it is essential to understanding his thought. In Citizen Marx, Bruno Leipold argues that, contrary to certain interpretive commonplaces, Karl Marx's thinking was deeply informed by republicanism. Marx's relation to republicanism changed over the course of his life, but its complex influence on his thought cannot be reduced to wholesale adoption or rejection. Challenging common depictions of Marx that downplay or ignore his commitment to politics, democracy, and freedom, Leipold shows that Marx viewed democratic political institutions as crucial to overcoming the social unfreedom and domination of capitalism. One of Marx's principal political values, Leipold argues, was a republican conception of freedom, according to which one is unfree when subjected to arbitrary power. Placing Marx's republican communism in its historical context-but not consigning him to that context-Leipold traces Marx's shifting relationship to republicanism across three broad periods. First, Marx began his political life as a republican committed to a democratic republic in which citizens held active popular sovereignty. Second, he transitioned to communism, criticizing republicanism but incorporating the republican opposition to arbitrary power into his social critiques. He argued that although a democratic republic was not sufficient for emancipation, it was necessary for it. Third, spurred by the events of the Paris Commune of 1871, he came to view popular control in representation and public administration as essential to the realization of communism. Leipold shows how Marx positioned his republican communism to displace both antipolitical socialism and anticommunist republicanism. One of Marx's great contributions, Leipold argues, was to place politics (and especially democratic politics) at the heart of socialism"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part I. The democratic republic. A German res publica : Marx's early republican journalism, 1842-43

True democracy : Marx's republican critique of the modern state, 1843

Soldiers of socialism : Marx's transition to communism, 1843-45

Part II. The bourgeois republic. The red flag and the Tricolor : republican communism and the bourgeois republic, 1845-52

People, property, proletariat : Marxian communism and radical republicanism, 1848-52

Chains and invisible threads : liberty and domination in Marx's critique of capitalism, 1867

Part III. The social republic. A communal constitution : the social republic and the political institutions of socialism, 1871.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Leipold, Bruno. Citizen Marx

ISBN:

9780691205236

069120523X

OCLC:

1418829454