en-US Thu, 01 May 2025 15:22:03 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7510712033 Thu, 01 May 2025 15:22:03 -0700 /review/show/7510712033 David gave 4 stars to Record of a Life: An Autobiographical Sketch (Hardcover) by György Lukács
bookshelves: historical-socialism, history, marxism-leninism, philosophy
Lukacs� autobiography, which provides excellent insight into his intellectual development and the politics of the Eastern European communist movement before and after World War II. There are many gems contained therein. Lukacs has harsh words for Zinoviev (and Bela Kun as a “typical Zinoviev disciple), Radek, Manuilsky, Bukharin, and Trotsky. He rejects his own rejection of the dialectics of nature in History and Class Consciousness, and instead makes the dialectics of nature into a crucial pillar of his analysis of Marxism as ontology (77). Lukacs sees value in Stalin’s philosophical attacks on the Bukharin mechanists as well as the Deborin School’s Plekhanov-inherited positivism (86). There are interesting observations about traditionally “Stalinist� figures like Dimitrov and the lesser-known Pavel Yudin, both of whom were close to Stalin but kept alive the more liberal Literary Critic journal run by Lukacs and kept him from prison (96-99).

Lukacs continues his criticism of Engels, which is finally boiled down to the following: “The most important distortion, without which Stalinism would not have been possible, is in the way that Engels, and after him a number of Social Democrats, interpreted the idea of social determinism from a standpoint of logical necessity, as opposed to the actual social context of which Marx speaks� (105). I remain unconvinced, as I think he is overstating Engels� determinism and ignoring his more dialectical writings in Origin of the Family, and not drawing a deep qualitative distinction between Engels and Social Democrats is a problem. As to his ultimate method, Lukacs says, “Following Marx I conceive of ontology as philosophy proper, but as philosophy based on history…Marx established that historicity is the fundamental concept of social being, and as such of all beings. This I hold to be the most important part of Marxian theory.�

If you are familiar with Lukacs� work, there is something of value here in finally coming to an understanding of the views which Lukacs held at the end of his life, how he in the end appraised History and Class Consciousness, and how he viewed the history of the Marxist movement from 1919 to his death. If you are unfamiliar with him, it is a good place to start in humanizing him and gaining familiarity with his political and intellectual journey.
]]> ReadStatus9375179420 Thu, 01 May 2025 12:53:03 -0700 /review/show/7534688120 David wants to read German Realists in the Nineteenth Century by György Lukács
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