Overview
- Places key figures in Marxism and liberalism in toe-to-toe competition with one another in the real world of politics
- Offers the first serious deep read into the politics of key liberal figures who are too often assessed simply on the basis of their most famous texts rather than their actions
- Provides a unique book-length treatment that employs the experiences of the nineteenth century quest for democracy, when it’s precarity was first made visible, in order to try to make sense of the current threats to democracy
Part of the book series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms (MAENMA)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
Keywords
- European Spring of 1848
- US Civil War
- political history
- 1905 Russian Revolution
- October Revolution
- End of the Great War
- Karl Marx
- Frederick Engels
- Vladimir Lenin
- Tocqueville
- John Stuart Mill
- Max Weber
- Woodrow Wilson
- liberalism
- socialism
- precarity
- political ideologies
- Marxism
- 19th century
- real-time political analysis
About this book
“An extraordinary work of political historical analysis that methodically and convincingly argues for the superiority of a Marxist approach for pursuing democracy. Rich in historical detail and thoroughly engrossing in portraying the real-time analyses of and intervention in crucial events by prominent Marxist and liberal theorists and political actors, Marxism versus Liberalism is a truly impressive achievement that will have an enduring appeal.”
—John F. Sitton, Professor Emeritus, Political Science, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA
Performing a comparative real-time political analysis, Marxism versus Liberalism presents convincing evidence to sustain two similarly audacious claims: firstly, that Karl Marx and Frederick Engels collectively had better democratic credentials than Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill; and secondly, that Vladimir Lenin had better democratic credentials than Max Weber and Woodrow Wilson. When the two sets of protagonists are compared and contrasted in how they read and responded to big political events in motion, this book contends that these Marxists proved to be better democrats than the history’s most prominent Liberals. Exploring the historical scenarios of The European Spring of 1848, the United States Civil War, the 1905 Russian Revolution, the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the end of World War I, Marxism versus Liberalism carefully tests each claim in order to challenge assumed political wisdom.
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Authors and Affiliations
About the author
August H. Nimtz is Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota, USA and the author of Marx and Engels: Their Contribution to the Democratic Breakthrough (2000), Marx, Tocqueville, and Race in America (2003), and the acclaimed two-volume Lenin’s Electoral Strategy with Palgrave Macmillan (2014) forthcoming in paperback as The Ballot, the Streets—or Both (Haymarket Books, 2019).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Marxism versus Liberalism
Book Subtitle: Comparative Real-Time Political Analysis
Authors: August H. Nimtz
Series Title: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24946-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-24945-8Published: 20 September 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-24948-9Published: 20 September 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-24946-5Published: 10 September 2019
Series ISSN: 2524-7123
Series E-ISSN: 2524-7131
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 310
Topics: Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Political Sociology, European History, Labor History