Friedrich Engels for the 21st Century: Reflections and Revaluations

Terrell Carver, Smail Rapic

Springer Nature, May 16, 2022 - Political Science - 405 pages

This edited volume presents an interdisciplinary and international revaluation of Friedrich Engels as much more than “junior partner” to Karl Marx or “second fiddle” in the Marxist orchestra. The nineteen critical essays in this collection are the work of scholars from Germany, USA, UK, Italy, China, India, Mexico and the Philippines. Together they present and evaluate archival material and scholarly commentary that covers epistemology, political economy, political theory, gender studies, cultural studies, political geography, philosophy of social science and sociological studies of class-conflict. Students, activists and specialists will find fresh consideration of familiar works, such as The Condition of the Working Class in England, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, and The Dialectics of Nature. They will also be able to explore Engels’s less familiar pamphleteering, literary criticism and political commentary through detailed contextualization andcareful analysis. Friedrich Engels for the 21st Century: Perspectives and Problems is unique in putting different intellectual and political receptions of Engels’s work into productive conversation, particularly from non-Anglophone scholars, translated here into English. Readers will appreciate why Engels has been so widely celebrated some two hundred years after his birth.

Contents

• 1 Introduction: 1
• Part I Epistemology and Philosophy of Nature: 31
• 2 Engels and the Dialectic of Nature: 33
• 3 Engels and the Dialectics of Nature: 52
• 4 Was Engels a Dialectical Materialist?: 71
• 5 Engels and the End of Philosophy: 89
• Part II Political Economy: 106
• The isOught Question: 107
• His Influence on the Young Marx: 127
• 8 Engels on the External Market and Deindustrialization: 145
• Part III The Condition of the Working Class: 160
• Bringing Together Friedrich Engels Edward P Thompson and Michael Vester: 163
• 10 The Question of Housing Revisited: 186
• Part IV Theorizing Power: 208
• 11 Engels Theorizes Gender Hierarchy in The Origin of the Family Private Property and the State: 209
• 12 The Concept of Power in Engelss Theory of the State: 229
• State Nationalism and Internationalism: 247
• Part V Engels and Literature: 268
• Engels and the Social Prose of the 1840s: 271
• The Triumph of Faith: 289
• A Political History to the Present: 310
• Part VI EmancipationRevolutionCommunism: 332
• Continuity or Discontinuity with Marxs Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism?: 333
• 18 Engels and the Remaking of Communism in the TwentyFirst Century: 355
• Whither Engels?: 373
• Index: 385

About the author

Terrell Carver is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol, UK. He is co-general editor of the series “Marx, Engels, and Marxisms”. His most recent books are Engels Before Marx and The Life and Thought of Friedrich Engels, 30th Anniversary Edition, both from Palgrave Macmillan (2020).

Smail Rapic is Professor of Philosophy at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany. He has published widely on philosophical topics relating historical materialism to classical thinkers, such as Rousseau, and to contemporary philosophers, such as Habermas.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Friedrich Engels for the 21st Century: Reflections and Revaluations; Marx, Engels, and Marxisms; Political Science and International Studies; Political Science and International Studies (R0)
• Editors: Terrell Carver, Smail Rapic
• Publisher: Springer Nature, 2022
• ISBN: 3030971384, 9783030971380
• Length: 405 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / General; Philosophy / Political; Political Science / General; Political Science / History & Theory; Social Science / Sociology / General