Lenin's masterpiece is State and Revolution (really the April Theses, but they're much more historical). I'd be into reading his analysis of the 1905 Russian Revolution/Mass Strike too, since I've not read it and apparently he goes back on his prior analysis from only a year or two earlier about the potential of the working class to become insurrectionary without outside help.
I don't know what work encapsulates Mao's ideas best--I'm personally totally repulsed by his whole persona/legacy/ideology, but would not be against reading something to understand more of how he justifies his ideas. (I know that's really biased, and probably comes off sounding ignorant/unwilling to challenge myself but I stand by it)
So now that we've read it, why is S&R a "masterpiece"? Not that it wasn't good or anything, but that seems a bit heavy...it is a pretty derivative piece without a ton of literary merit, although it is a remarkably concise and convincing argument from within a certain perspective. it hardly deserves to be judged as an original work of philosophy or anything like that, though.
Lenin's masterpiece is State and Revolution (really the April Theses, but they're much more historical). I'd be into reading his analysis of the 1905 Russian Revolution/Mass Strike too, since I've not read it and apparently he goes back on his prior analysis from only a year or two earlier about the potential of the working class to become insurrectionary without outside help.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what work encapsulates Mao's ideas best--I'm personally totally repulsed by his whole persona/legacy/ideology, but would not be against reading something to understand more of how he justifies his ideas. (I know that's really biased, and probably comes off sounding ignorant/unwilling to challenge myself but I stand by it)
So now that we've read it, why is S&R a "masterpiece"? Not that it wasn't good or anything, but that seems a bit heavy...it is a pretty derivative piece without a ton of literary merit, although it is a remarkably concise and convincing argument from within a certain perspective. it hardly deserves to be judged as an original work of philosophy or anything like that, though.
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