Customer Reviews

Karl Marx, racist

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a review of KARL MARX: RACIST by Nathaniel Weyl. Mine is the hardback edition published by a New York firm, Arlington House, in 1979. The book lacks a bibliography but has endnotes after each chapter which are sufficient to identify the author's sources. There is also a useful index. The dust jacket is bright red with the iconic solemn, bearded visage of Karl Marx staring into the distance imposed on a white Ku Klux Klan style hood. Not only is this an eye catching design, but it's a good summary of the author's analysis of Marx.

Weyl's research peeled away the accumulated layers of Communist hagiography and reveals Marx to have been a bigot of the first order. He used the proverbial "N word" just the way a Klan thug would. He hated the Jews, the Slavs, the Chinese and everybody else. If he was funny and clean-shaven, he'd be Archie Bunker instead of the fearless prophet of the downtrodden working classes.

Weyl passed away in 1975. Born in 1910, he was educated at Columbia College in New York and then did postgraduate work at the prestigious London School of Economics. He returned to the United States at the height of the Great Depression joined the Communist Party and got a job in one of President Roosevelt's "New Deal" agencies. He hob-nobbed with other Communists including Alger Hiss, but "found secret membership in this [Communist] cell while a US official duplicitous, and resolved my personal problem by resigning from the government."

Appalled by Stalin's cynical alliance with Hitler in 1939, Weyl left the Communist Party and began to notice some of the warts on its founder, Karl Marx. This book is his gift to us and it stands as a reminder of the kind of flawed man Marx really was. It should be required reading in every history and political science course on the planet.

It is original, well written, carefully researched and interesting for anybody who is a student of modern history, European history, totalitarianism, 20th century world history, especially the Cold War. I was impressed by this book and gave it five stars.

With the fall of Soviet Communism and the Capitalization of the remaining, obstensible, Communist states, this book is less important than it used to be...but is still a treasure trove. Want to find out what Marx was really like? Just how supremely hateful, racist and evil? Read this book.
The actual writing in not very good, but the research is impeccable; you will get the unvarnished Marx gems that American Intelligentsia has laundered.

Anyone who has done serious objective research will attest to the reliability and accuracy of this book. It is quite disarming and sad that so many black "leaders", W.E. du Bois for one, held such high esteem for a man who totally deprecated their race. Marx, of course, was greatly influenced by Darwin, and applied his theory to his own "research." But just as Marx was wrong in his predictions of capitalism, he was also wrong assuming a close connection of some races with the animal kingdom. Marx gets a Zero for his research; Weyl gets an A. Not necessarily the best book written in a literary sense, but the information is documented and valuable. Yes, go back and read Marx in his own original context. SG, Ph.D.: Prof. Philosophy and History/ Author

Marx opposed slavery and believed in equality. He wrote, "In the United States of North America every independent movement of the workers was paralyzed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the republic. Labour cannot emancipate itself in the white skin where in the black it is branded." To call him a racist, you have to take his words out of context and ignore the ways our language has changed since Marx's time.

As a black intellectual, Marx's views on Race is extremely important to me seeing as how influential his theories have been. One thing I have learned in my readings of all the great theorists (Durkheim, Weber, Comte, etc.) is that one must place them into context of the era in which they exist. That stated one must be very careful to judge according to the words used by writers, what was the norm may actually deviate from the norm in today's world.

Many of the claims the author makes about Marx is taken completely out of context and with little regard to Marx's direct statements concerning question of Race. The author attempts to evoke a response by focusing on Marx's terminology rather than the meanings behind his words. In his writings on America and the questions concerning race, Marx points to differences in material and political realities between races in America as being key not in some inherent inferiority of non-Whites.

What is fascinating about this book is that the author has also written books that might call into question his views on race. I won't expound on this because I would be making the same error many others make in taking an author's words out of the context of their meaning (which itself is socially and historically constructed). Nonetheless, if you have the time (and the stomach for poor scholarly work) take a look at Weyl's "Mankind Quarterly" and "Traitor's End" which depicts his views/positions on miscegenation and Africa's Liberation Movements.

Never have so many lies and so much distortion and misrepresentation been packed into such a small space. Anyone who actually read what Marx wrote and is thoroughly familiar with the facts will be astonished at the various fictions and spin assembled in this book. Nowhere does Weyl mention any of the innumerable statements or actions which resoundingly disprove his thesis. Of course, if you don't care for the truth and just want to seem to know what you're talking about, this is the book for you. This is probably the most expensive bathroom tissue available. Anyone interested in knowing the truth should read Nimtz book on Marx, Tocqueville and Race in America.