Karl Marx

:This article is about the German political philosopher Karl Marx, for other uses of Marx, see Marx (disambiguation)

Marx's influence

See also: Marxism

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Marx and Engels' work covers a wide range of topics and presents a complex analysis of history and society in terms of class relations. Followers of Marx and Engels have drawn on this work to propose a political and economic philosophy dubbed Marxism. Nevertheless, there have been numerous debates among Marxists over how to interpret Marx's writings and how to apply his concepts to current events and conditions (and it is important to distinguish between "Marxism" and "what Marx believed"; for example, shortly before he died in 1883, Marx wrote a letter to the French workers' leader Jules Guesde, and to Marx's son-in-law Paul Lafargue, accusing them of "revolutionary phrase-mongering" and of denying the value of reformist struggles; "if that is Marxism" — paraphrasing what Marx wrote — "then I am not a Marxist"). Essentially, people use the word "Marxist" to describe those who rely on Marx's conceptual language (e.g. mode of production, class, commodity fetishism) to understand capitalist and other societies, or to describe those who believe that a workers' revolution is the only means to a communist society.

Related Topics:
Marxism - 1883 - Jules Guesde - Paul Lafargue - Marxist

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Six years after Marx's death, Engels and others founded the "Second International" as a base for continued political activism. This organization collapsed in 1914, in part because some members turned to Edward Bernstein's "evolutionary" socialism, and in part because of divisions precipitated by World War I.

Related Topics:
Second International - 1914 - Edward Bernstein - Evolution - World War I

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World War I also led to the Russian Revolution and the consequent ascendance of Vladimir Lenin's leadership of the communist movement, embodied in the "Third International". Lenin claimed to be both the philosophical and political heir to Marx, and developed a political program, called Leninism or Bolshevism, which called for revolution organized and led by a centrally organized Communist Party.

Related Topics:
Russian Revolution - Vladimir Lenin - Third International - Leninism - Bolshevism - Communist Party

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After Lenin's death, the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, seized control of the Party and state apparatus. He argued that before a world-wide communist revolution would be possible, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had to dedicate itself to building communism in its own country. It was Stalin's Soviet Union and its policies that undermined the concept of Marxism in the Western world. For many years, especially after the Second World War during the Cold War period, Marxism was popularly equated with communism, which in turn was understood as a political totalitarianism disregarding civil rights.

Related Topics:
Soviet Union - Joseph Stalin - State - Western world - Second World War - Cold War - Totalitarianism - Civil rights

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In 1929, Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Union and in 1938 founded the competing "Fourth International." Some followers of Trotsky argued that Stalin had created a bureaucratic state rather than a socialist state.

Related Topics:
Leon Trotsky - 1938 - Fourth International - Bureaucratic state - Socialist state

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In China Mao Zedong also claimed to be an heir to Marx, but argued that peasants and not just workers could play a leading role in a Communist revolution. This was a profound departure from Marx's own view of revolution, which focused exclusively on the urban proletariat, and which he believed would take place in advanced industrial societies such as France, Germany and England. Marxism-Leninism as espoused by Mao came to be internationally known as Maoism.

Related Topics:
Mao Zedong - Peasant - Maoism

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In the 1920s and '30s, a group of dissident Marxists founded the Institute for Social Research in Germany, among them Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse. As a group, these authors are often called the Frankfurt School. Their work is known as Critical Theory, a type of Marxist philosophy and cultural criticism heavily influenced by Hegel, Freud, Nietzsche, and Max Weber.

Related Topics:
1920s - 30s - Institute for Social Research in Germany, - Max Horkheimer - Theodor Adorno - Erich Fromm - Herbert Marcuse - Frankfurt School - Critical Theory - Freud - Nietzsche - Max Weber

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The Frankfurt School broke with earlier Marxists, including Lenin and Bolshevism in several key ways. First, writing at the time of the ascendance of Stalinism and Fascism, they had grave doubts as to the traditional Marxist concept of proletarian class consciousness. Second, unlike earlier Marxists, especially Lenin, they rejected economic determinism. While highly influential, their work is often criticized for reducing Marxism to a purely academic enterprise.

Related Topics:
Bolshevism - Stalinism - Fascism - Class consciousness - Economic determinism

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Other influential non-Bolshevik Marxists at that time include Georg Lukacs, Walter Benjamin and Antonio Gramsci, who along with the Frankfurt School are often known by the term Western Marxism. Also prominent during this period was the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. Henryk Grossman, who elaborated the mathematical basis of Marx's 'law of capitalist breakdown', was another contemporary.

Related Topics:
Georg Lukacs - Walter Benjamin - Antonio Gramsci - Western Marxism - Rosa Luxemburg - Henryk Grossman

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In 1949 Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman founded Monthly Review, a journal and press, to provide an outlet for Marxist thought in the United States independent of the Communist Party.

Related Topics:
1949 - Paul Sweezy - Monthly Review - Communist Party

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In 1978, G. A. Cohen attempted to defend Marx's thought as a coherent and scientific theory of history by reconstructing it through the lens of analytic philosophy. This gave birth to Analytical Marxism, an academic movement which also included Jon Elster, Adam Przeworski and John Roemer. Bertell Ollman is another Anglophone champion of Marx within the academy.

Related Topics:
1978 - G. A. Cohen - Analytic philosophy - Analytical Marxism - Jon Elster - Adam Przeworski - John Roemer - Bertell Ollman - Anglophone

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In July 2005 Marx was the surprise winner of the 'Greatest Philosopher of All Time' poll by listeners of BBC Radio 4.http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1530250,00.html

Related Topics:
BBC - Radio 4

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