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Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders, The Golden Age, The Breakdown
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - Marxiana of historical interest in a welcome, if somewhat flawed, new edition
While a new single-volume edition of Kolakowski's Main Currents is most welcome, re-reading it, I cannot but feel it will be of interest only to the most ardent Marxologists (and perhaps the occasional trawler for spirited anti-communist quips).
The work is certainly not a good place to look for an introduction to Marx or Marxist thought. For those purposes, it is far too expansive, and dwells on topics and thinkers that have been rendered largely philosophically irrelevant over the decades since its completion. As a philosophical assessment of Marx's own work, it is neither particularly innovative, nor particularly astute, however eloquently written. To get a good sense of Marx's philosophical thought, it would be considerably wiser even for a novice to invest the time it would take to make one's way through Kolakowski's 400-odd pages of the first volume into reading an equal amount of the primary literature.
On the other hand, in spite of its length, the book's treatment of many Marxists, especially in the third volume, is essentially superficial, and therefore of little use to an advanced reader. For someone who has, for instance, a desire to deepen one's knowledge of Ernst Bloch, Kolakowski's witty and biting short chapter may be amusing, but hardly enlightening.
Finally, as a previous review notes, the English translation is pleasurably readable. However, what it does not convey is precisely the charming unevenness of the original. Over the time of writing the Main Currents, Kolakowski moved from being a slightly reluctant true believer to being a vitriolic apostate, and this shift is reflected in the tones of the original. Perhaps befitting the image Kolakowski has constructed for himself in the West, the translation air-brushes out such tonal blemishes -- as many of his current fans would be likely to view them. The cost of this is the loss of the historicity captured by the book both in its original language, and in several translations into others, like Serbo-Croatian.
In the end, Kolakowski's work is a testament of a particular time and a particular Eastern European intellectual milieu. That is a source of its enduring value, but also a limitation. Those interested in high-powered philosophical scrutiny should look elsewhere. Those keen on exploring some strange eddies of European history should be delighted by this imperfect new edition. It can itself be read, to an extent, as a testament of the time we live in now.
Rating:  - This is NOT scholarship
As the other reviews betray, this is NOT a scholarly work on the history of Marxist theory. It is an ideologically motivated hatchet job, astonishing in its breadth and detail, but propaganda nonetheless. It is not concerned with discovering truth at all, because Kolakowski is already convinced that he possesses it. Possessing truth, he feels justified in lying and distorting things however he pleases.
If you want to actually study Marxism, why would you turn to someone who openly avows a hatred of it? If you want to study Adam Smith, you don't turn to Marx. Likewise, if you want to study Marx, don't go looking in Kolakowski. That's just lame.
Rating:  - A Monumental work
This compilation is a monumental work of research, an ecnyclopedic description of Marxist thought from the beggining to the 1970s. It begins before Marx, going back to ancient Greece and early Christianity in exmaining the dialectic that led to Hegel and thence to Marx. The first book is devoted to this discussion and Marx. The second and third volume examines other thinkers such as Bakunin, Gramsci and Lukacs. This is truly a masterwork, one to wade through at your own pace. Great excerpts highlight Proudhoun, Stalinism and Leninism and even Maoism.
A fascinating book of great depth and understanding, hefty.
Seth J. Frantzman
Rating: - Read it and weep!
This one-volume edition of Kolakowski's three-volume demolition of Marxism is superb. As a friend once remarked, "More than this, one cannot do."
There are still Marxists and pseudo-Marxists among us, but one doubts that they have the candlepower or integrity to sit down and read through this masterpiece.
Rating: - A High Point of Intellectual History
This is an outstanding description and analysis of the history of Marxism as a philosophic enterprise and doctrine. Kolakowski's goal is a fair and lucid history of Marxism as an intellectual enterprise. This is a highly ambitious undertaking requiring familiarity with a huge range of writers and thinkers, ranging from famous figures like Marx and Hegel to obscure 19th and 20th century ideologues. Kolakowski also appears to be remarkably well versed in the secondary literature on Marxism as well. The breadth and depth of scholarship is remarkable and is matched by Kolakowski's lucid exposition. Considerably credit has to be given to the translator, PS Falla, for the fluent English. Main Currents is divided into 3 volumes, the first covering the origins of Marxism and Marx himself, the second devoted to the apogee of Marxist thought, and the last to history of Marxism since the Russian revolution.
Kolokowski begins in an apparently surprising place; the Neoplatonism of the Classical world. He points out that some of of the themes implicit in Marx have very deep roots. The ideas of man alienating aspects of his essence and then being restored to completion in a dramatic and catastrophic event are ancient. Kolakowski traces these ideas and the accompanying aspects of eschatology and soteriology through major philosophers and theologians of both the Classical and Medieval period into the end of the 18th century. He then moves to a brilliant description of the Hegelian - Idealist tradition that forms the immediate background of Marx's work. Kolakowski's analysis of Marx's wholesale modification of Hegel's concepts and his synthesis of Hegelian thought with the Romantic ideals of early 19th century socialism and economic ideas is simply the best description of this difficult subject I have ever encountered. He then moves through a careful chronological reconstruction of Marx's thought, emphasizing the continuity from Marx's earliest substantial work to the last completed parts of Capital. Kolakowski particularly highlights the key role of the concept of alienation in Marx's thought. The description of Marx is lucid and evenhanded. Kolakowski is very respectful of Marx's brilliance as a thinker and provides outstanding discussions of difficult concepts like Marx's concept of surplus value and his concept of history. Kolakowski's exposition gives a very strong sense of why Marx's system was so attractive to generations of intellectuals. This is not to suggest that Kolakowski is uncritical. Quite the opposite. Kolakowski's critique of key issues in Marx such as the concept of surplus value or the claims of historical materialism are ruthlessly effective.
The second volume covers the period from death of Engels to the Bolshevik Revolution. This is also approximately the period of the Second International. Kolakowski describes this as the "Golden Age" of Marxist thought, a period characterized by a diversity of Marxist thinkers and continued interaction of Marxists with other intellectual traditions. This volume has all the virtues of Vol. 1., exhibiting Kolakowski's remarkable command of Marxist and general philosophical history, his solid knowledge of European history, a fluid writing style, and his incisive judgement about the subjects under discussion. In the the first half of this volume, Kolakowski shows the interesting diversity of the Marxist tradition during this period. This includes both a variety of interpretations of Marx and also the interaction of Marxism with other philosophical traditions, such as the Kantian revival of the late 19th century. Kolakowski covers some figures not thought of usually as part of the Marxist mainstream, such as Sorel and Jean Jaures, as well as illuminating discussions of the Revisionist and Austro-Marxist movements.
The second half of this volume is devoted to the pregnant subject of Russian Marxism. Kolakowski provides a very nice overview of the relevant Russian intellectual history leading up to a detailed discussion of various Russian Marxists. This concludes with an intensive examination of the work and career of Lenin, who is presented as a mediocre thinker but essentially as a successful leader of the cult that founded the Soviet state.
The third volume covers the decline of Marxism as a viable intellectual enterprise. Kolakowski presents the decline as occurring in two different ways. The first and most important is the development of Marxism in its Leninist-Stalinist form in which certain aspects of Marxism were emphasized by Lenin to develop the ideology that came to underpin the Soviet State and its Eastern European conquests. Kolakowski argues convincingly that the resulting ideology was not a "deformation" or distortion of Marx but rather a logical though far from inevitable interpretation of Marx's doctrines. With the articulation of the Soviet state and the cult of Stalin, this process involved the impoverishment of Marxist thinking, disconnection from other philosophical traditions, and ultimate evolution into a sterile ideology used solely to justify totalitarianism. Providing an accurate historical analysis of this phenomenon required Kolakowski to read not only figures of real importance like Lenin and Stalin but also the painful but necessary task of thoroughly reading a number of minor Stalinist ideologues.
The second aspect of the Breakdown is Kolakowski's analysis of post-Stalinist Marxism including such varied figures as Gramsci, the School of Frankfort, and others. By and large, this is a depiction of an essentially decadent intellectual tradition though Kolakowski writes relatively sympathetically of figures for whom he has some respect such as Habermas and Gramsci. Kolakowski has a very evenhanded writing style but his treatment of some of these individuals is harshly critical without using hyperbolic language. His chapter on Marcuse is a textbook example of intellectual demolition without name calling. One of the most interesting treatments in the book is that of Gyorgy Lukacs. Kolakowski presents Lukacs as someone melding both aspects of the breakdown. Kolakowski clearly respects Lukacs as man of considerable intellect. Lukacs' judgements on Marx, notably his analysis of the role of Marx's Hegelianism, his emphasis on alienation, the need to interpret history as a teleological process, and others, mirror Kolakowski's own analysis and may well have influenced the younger Kolakowski. Kolakowski also demonstrates as well that the essential thrust of Lukacs' work was to provide a sophisticated defense of Stalinism, a morally and intellectually bankrupt undertaking.
Marxism as a vital intellectual tradition is probably, as Kolakowski argues, at a dead end. Still, achieving an understanding of the history of the last century is impossible without understanding the history and role of Marxism. The superb book is an invaluable resource in any effort to understand the events of the last century.
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