From Publishers Weekly
Some critics make Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) a "scapegoat for all that they dislike in Soviet Marxism," notes Hunley, while others claim that he espoused democratic reformism. Still other commentators counterpose Engels the simpleminded determinist to Karl Marx, the innovator of a complex dialectic of historical change. All of these interpretations are plain wrong, writes Hunley, deputy command historian with the U.S. Air Force, in this scholarly study that will appeal chiefly to serious students of Marxism. He argues convincingly that Marx and Engels were in fundamental agreement, and makes a fair case for Engels as an original, independent thinker whose ideas paralleled those of his collaborator. He further contends that both Marx and Engels were too committed to a "humanist liberation of the working classes" to be blamed for Soviet repression--a simplistic view.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This brief but competent intellectual portrait of Engels has two aims. The first is to show the close intellectual agreement between Marx and Engels, challenging the "dichotomists" who argue that Engels was the first revisor of Marxist thought and therefore responsible for the subsequent extremes of Soviet Marxism. The second is to show that Engels was an important thinker in his own right. Tracing Engels's views on epistemology, reform and revolution, and humanism, Hunley makes a compelling case for both his theses. As with Steven Marcus's Engels, Manchester, and the Working Class ( LJ 4/1/74), we are reminded that Engels was more than Marx's shadow.
- T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
