1st Edition

Karl Marx and the Anarchists Library Editions: Political Science Volume 60

By Paul Thomas Copyright 1980
    432 Pages
    by Routledge

    418 Pages
    by Routledge

    This study examines Marx’s disputes with, and attacks upon, those anarchist theoreticians he encountered at various stages of his career. Marx’s attacks on Stirner, Proudhon and Bakunin are shown to be of vital importance to his career as a theorist and revolutionist. The formative influences upon Marx’s writings and his political activity are discussed and analyzed. The author re-situates Marx’s thought in the context of the 19th century when Marxism was not an unchallenged orthodoxy but a doctrine and method that needed to be defended against rival revolutionary impulses.

    Part 1: Foundations  1. Hegelian Roots  2. Alien Politics  Part 2: Disputations  3. Marx and Stirner  4. Marx and Proudhon  5. Marx, Bakunin and the International

    Biography

    Paul Thomas

    'a major contribution to political theory.'- Thomas Pocklington

    'a work of great breadth and major importance.'-Choice

    'This is the first and only full-length study of Marx's long-running battle with his anarchist competitors on the left, providing us with the most penetrating examination available of the theoretical sources of their various disputes...The author ably illuminates the much-debated question of Marx's own political theory.'- G. L. Ulmen