SocialismOn learning his cancer was inoperable, renowned intellectual Michael Harrington simply asked the doctors to keep him alive long enough "to complete a summary statement of the themes I had thought of throughout an activist life." And they did. Socialism: Past and Future is prominent thinker Michael Harrington's final contribution: a thoughtful, intelligent, and compassionate treatise on the role of socialism both past and present in modern society. He is convincing in his application of classic socialist theory to current economic situations and modern political systems, and he examines the validity of the idea of "visionary gradualism" in bringing about a socialist agenda. He believes that if freedom and justice are to survive into the next century, the socialist movement will be a critical factor. This is the definitive text on the role of socialism throughout history which Publishers Weekly calls "succinct, readable" and the New York Times says "has a lively air of optimism and boldly challenges traditional ideas." In this passionate book, the late Michael Harrington draws on a lifetime of thinking and politicking to reject much that has passed for socialism and to define the new forms that will make it the only "hope for human freedom and justice" (Foreign Affairs) in the twenty-first century. |
Contents
The Future of the Past | 3 |
The Preconditions of the Dream | 11 |
The Democratic Essence | 36 |
Copyright | |
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American analysis anti-socialist argued basic basis become bourgeois bourgeoisie bureaucratic bureaucratic collectivism capitalism capitalist century Chapter collectivism colonies Communism Communist Communist Manifesto corporations countries create crucial Das Kapital democracy dictatorship E. H. Carr economic economists Europe European fact feudal force G. D. H. Cole German Godesberg Program Gompers human industrial International investment John Kenneth Galbraith Kapital Karl Kautsky Karl Marx Kautsky labor movement land leaders Left Lenin majority Manifesto Marx and Engels Marx's Marxian Marxist mass means of production ment million modern Myrdal organization ownership peasants percent planning political poor possible poverty preconditions problem profit proletariat proposed radical reform revolutionary Russia social democrats socialist movement Socialist Party Soviet Stalin struggle surplus theory Third World tion totalitarian trade trend turned unions United utopian wages wealth workers wrote York