A series of 10 sessions introducing Platypus’s approach to the history of Marxism.
- * required / • recommended
Essential background reading
- * Leszek Kolakowski, “The Concept of the Left“
Recommended preliminary/background readings
• Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940), Part II. Ch. (1–4,) 5–10, 12–16; Part III. Ch. 1–6
• James Joll, _The Second International 1889-1914_ (1966)
• Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918-19(1968)
Week 1
* Chris Cutrone, “The Marxist hypothesis: a response to Alain Badiou’s ‘communist hypothesis’“
* Cutrone, “Capital in history: The need for a Marxian philosophy of history of the Left”
• Kant, “Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View” (1784)
• Benjamin Constant, “The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns” (1819)
•• Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754)
•• Rousseau, selection from The Social Contract (1762)
Week 2
* **Marx **and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), pp. 469-500
* Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx’s dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11
* Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15
Week 3
* Film Screening: Margarethe von Trotta, dir., Rosa Luxemburg (1986 film)
* Rosa Luxemburg, “The Crisis of German Social Democracy” Part 1 (1915), and “Order Reigns in Berlin” (1919)
* J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890-1914 as a Political Model” (1965)
•• James Joll, _The Second International 1889-1914_ (1966)
Week 4
- * Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)
Week 5
- * Richard **Appignanesi **and Oscar **Zarate **/ A&Z, _Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners_(1977)
Week 6
- * Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
Week 7
- * Luxemburg, “The Russian Tragedy” (1918), “Order Reigns in Berlin” (1919)
•• Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918-19(1968)
Week 8
- * Tariq **Ali **and Phil Evans, _Introducing Trotsky and Marxism _/Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
Week 9
- * Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung
• Theodor W. Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)
Week 10
- * Theodor W. Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)
• Adorno and Horkheimer, “Towards a New Manifesto?” (1956)
- * Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)