Best of
Politics

1932

The German Ideology / Theses on Feuerbach / Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy


Karl Marx - 1932
    They chart the course of "true" socialism based on G. W.F. Hegel's dialectic, while criticizing the ideas of Bruno Bauer, Max Stirner and Ludwig Feuerbach. Marx expanded his criticism of the latter in his now famous Theses on Feuerbach, found after Marx's death and published by Engels in 1888. Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy, also found among the posthumous papers of Marx, is a fragment of an introduction to his main works. Combining these three works, this volume is essential for an understanding of Marxism.

Moral Man and Immoral Society: Study in Ethics and Politics


Reinhold Niebuhr - 1932
    Forthright and realistic, it discusses the inevitability of social conflict, the brutal behavior of human collectives of every sort, the inability of rationalists and social scientists to even imagine the realities of collective power, and, ultimately, how individual morality can overcome social immorality.The Library of Theological Ethics series focuses on what it means to think theologically and ethically. It presents a selection of important and otherwise unavailable texts in easily accessible form. Volumes in this series will enable sustained dialogue with predecessors though reflection on classic works in the field.

In Defence of the October Revolution


Leon Trotsky - 1932
    Lecture given by Leon Trotsky to an audience of Social Democratic students in Copenhagen, November 27, 1932

The Worker: Dominion and Form


Ernst Jünger - 1932
    Jünger’s analyses, written in critical dialogue with Marx, are inspired by a profound intuition of the movement of history and an insightful interpretation of Nietzsche’s philosophy. Martin Heidegger considered Jünger “the only genuine follower of Nietzsche,” singularly providing “an interpretation which took shape in the domain of that metaphysics which already determines our epoch, even against our knowledge; this metaphysics is Nietzsche's doctrine of the ‘will to power.’” In The Worker, Jünger examines some of the defining questions of that epoch: the nature of individuality, society, and the state; morality, justice, and law; and the relationships between freedom and power and between technology and nature. This work, appearing in its entirety in English translation for the first time, is an important contribution to debates on work, technology, and politics by one of the most controversial German intellectuals of the twentieth century. Not merely of historical interest, The Worker carries a vital message for contemporary debates about world economy, political stability, and equality in our own age, one marked by unsettling parallels to the 1930s.

Liberating Society from the State and Other Writings: A Political Reader


Erich Mühsam - 1932
    Uniting a burning desire for individual liberation with radical, left-wing convictions and bohemian strains with syndicalist tendencies, this diverse body of work not only includes his main political pamphlet and one of the key texts in the history of German anarchism but also some of his best-known poems, unbending defenses of political prisoners, passionate calls for solidarity among the proletariat, recollections of the utopian community of Monte Verità, debates on the rights of homosexuals and women, and the role of intellectuals in the class struggle. Perfect for anarchists, activists, or those interested in German history, this expansive and enlightening compilation provides a deep understanding of this important historical figure.

Fifty Years of Struggle over Marxism 1883-1932


Henryk Grossman - 1932
    

Stalin: The Career Of A Fanatic


Essad Bey - 1932
    

Manchuria - Cradle of Conflict


Owen Lattimore - 1932
    Originally published in 1931. INTRODUCTION: THIS book is founded on the experience gained during about nine months of travel and residence in Manchuria, in 1929-30, under a fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, New York. Previous experience on the borders of China and Inner Mongolia, and a long journey through Mon golia and Chinese Turkestan, had convinced me that a study of Manchuria must be essential to an understanding of the vast territory that lies between China and Russia. Manchuria, Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan were once important as the lands in which the northern barbarians of Chinas frontier maneuvered in war and migration, working out among their own tribes their destinies of conquest in China or migration toward the West. They are now becoming a field of contest between three types of civilization the Chinese, the Russian and the Western. In our generation the most acute rivalry is in Manchuria, and the chief protagonist of the Western civilization is Japan whose interpretation and application of a borrowed culture is of acute interest to the Western world, as on it turns to a great extent the choice which other nations have yet to make between their own indigenous cultures and the rival conquering cultures of Russia and the West. During our stay in Manchuria my wife and I tried to make our experience as varied as possible, but at the same time to stay long enough in each region studied to insure that our impressions should not be too superficial. Thus we spent part of the winter in one room at an inn, in a mud-walled boom town on the Western frontiers of Manchuria, where Chinese colonists are rapidly taking over Mongol pastures and opening them to cultivation. Then we moved to another one room lodging in an old thatched schoolhouse, in a small town in Kirin province, where the population was old-fash ioned and predominantly Manchu. In the spring I went up again to the Western frontiers and traveled, first by military motor convoy and then riding with border troopers, among the Mongols. When the ice broke up on the great Sungari river, I traveled on one of the first steamers down to the junction of the Sungari with the Amur about four hundred miles. As the steamers were afraid to venture into the Amur, no settlement having yet been made of the dispute between China and Russia, I traveled on by cart, with a good deal of difficulty, for some distance along the flooded banks of the Amur, among the Fishskin Tatars. Later in the summer I visited Hailar, in the Barga region. In the intervals between traveling, or making long stays in the country, we visited the chief cities Mukden, Dairen, Harbin and Kirin city or made short stays at smaller towns, or in villages, or at temples in the hills. In the larger towns we naturally did our best to meet well-informed people of all nationalities, but out in the country we rarely saw a for eigner, and often went for weeks without speaking English except to each other. As we traveled very simply, had no need of an interpreter, used always the same means of travel as the people of the region and lived in the same kind of houses or inns, our contact with the life about us was as close as possible. We were thus able to collect a great deal of local tradition not only legend and folklore, but the memories of the older inhabitants besides noting the signs of that modern progress which is the chief enthusiasm of the younger generation...

Memoirs Of A British Agent: Being An Account Of The Author's Early Life In Many Lands And Of His Official Mission To Moscow In 1918


R.H. Bruce Lockhart - 1932
    R.H. Lockhart's account of the years he spent representing Britain's Foreign Office in Russia is still immensely entertaining and informative today. Lockhart was not an espionage agent; he was a diplomat. He was Britain's Vice-Consul in Moscow, then Acting Consul-General, then official "unofficial" representative to the new Bolshevik regime in Russia, between the years 1912 and 1918. Lockhart describes his attempts at rubber farming as a young man in Malaysia and the circumstances that led to his seeking a career in the Foreign Office. He was given the post of British Vice-Consul in Moscow shortly after joining the Service. In these memoirs, Lockhart gives us his insights into Russian culture and politics during the last years of Tzarist rule, the circumstances of Russia's participation in World War I, and Russia's descent into Bolshevism. Lockhart came to love the Russian people and consider Moscow his home while he witnessed the last Tzar unwittingly ensure his own downfall and the succeeding Provisional Government inevitably fail. He gives an honest account of the errors in British and Allied policies during these precarious years in Russia. We get a close-up view of the eternal rift between diplomatic knowledge and political imperative. "Memoirs of a British Agent" is a supremely literate and insightful first-hand account of the fascinating and turbulent time in Russia that gave birth to the Soviet Union through the eyes of a foreigner who knew many prominent members of both the Tzarist and Bolshevik regimes personally. Lockhart manages to convey great sympathy for Russians of various ideologies while at the same time speaking bluntly of their shortcomings. Rarely has a book that is so informative been so entertaining. "Memoirs of a British Agent" is a real page-turner.

I Saw Hitler!


Dorothy Thompson - 1932
    This formed the basis for her book, I Saw Hitler, in which she wrote about the dangers of Hitler winning power in Germany.The Nazis considered the book and her other articles offensive and, in August 1934, Thompson became the first American journalist to be expelled from Germany.