Marx for a Post-Communist Era: On Poverty, Corruption and Banality (Ideas) [Paperback]

Stefan Sullivan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415201934 | ISBN-13: 978-0415201933 | Publication Date: January 20, 2002 | Edition: 1

Marx for a Post-Communist Era combines a deep understanding of Marxist thought with journalistic engagement in real-world themes. This comprehensive and timely book will be of interest to students and academics in the areas of philosophy, sociology, politics and cultural studies, and to anyone with an interest in Marx and his legacy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sullivan has deeply internalized the Marxist concept of the `realm of freedom` and brought it to bear on the daily world around him." Ian McKay --Rebels, Reds, Radicals: Rethinking Canada`s Left History (Between the Lines, Toronto, 2005)

"a thought provoking analysis of the relevance of Marx since the collapse of communist power." Leslie Holmes --Communism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2009

Possibly the most stigmatized thinker in the west, Marx has been distorted or co-opted by friends and foes alike. In a sober journalistic style, Stefan Sullivan's Marx for a Post-Communist Era reinvigorates a Marxist critique tarnished by esoteric scholasticism, party sloganeering and simplistic refutations.
–John Huntington, Politics and Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse, Washington D.C.

Sullivan's clear and lucid retelling of the cultural origins and history of Marxism and economic theory is unparalleled.
–C. Jason Smith Reconstruction

Sullivan's book is invigorating: readable and relevant in telling detail, it dissects the economic, political and cultural consequences of a world society driven by profit and greed. A marvelously humane and hopeful critique of the dominant ideology.
–Prof. David McLellan, University of Kent

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, most scholars and policymakers embraced an end of history euphoria - in short, now that the USSR was dead, all the world would increasingly adopt Western forms of political and economic governance (free markets and elections). And that was sufficient. Of course the events of the past few years, from the Crises in Asia and Russia to the attacks of September 11 have called this view into question. What first principles are there to help us move beyond the clichs and develop some sound analytical lenses? Stefan Sullivan, bucking all trends, builds a compelling argument about why Marx is still very important to understand current issues in international political economy and culture. Revisiting is not to say that the USSR will be back, but rather it is to appreciate what insights we find in the writings of one of the most important social theorists of the modern era.
–Prof. Gerald McDermott, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

About the Author

Stefan Sullivan is the author of numerous articles on international affairs and one novel, Sibirischer Schwindel (Eichborn/Frankfurt, 2002)  which won a Discovery Award at the 2001 Hollywood Film Festival. In 1994, he received his Oxford PhD with a dissertation on Jesus in 19th century German philosophy. He lives in Washington, DC.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (January 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415201934
• ISBN-13: 978-0415201933
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,595,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in 1966, Stefan Sullivan grew up in Washington D.C., southern Germany, and rural Illinois. He studied Political Science and Russian at Middlebury, and spent his junior year abroad in Paris and Moscow. After a year as a "Sovietologist" at SRI International, a Washington defense contractor, he embarked on an Oxford PhD about Jesus in 19th Century German philosophy (supervised by Leszek Kolakowksi and John Torrance). Throughout the early 1990s, as a break from Hegeliana and biblical exegesis, Sullivan also routinely visited Russia in various guises: as journalist, NGO operative in the war zones of the Caucasus, and quixotic adventurer in the outer reaches of Siberia.

After completing his dissertation in 1993, Sullivan returned to Siberia as a "biznesmen" in the oil and gas region of Tyumen: funny money, dark suits and the powder blue Mercedes 6-door; in short, material for a first novel. Published in 2002, the novel won widespread critical acclaim, comparisons to Henry Miller, Boris Vian, and Thomas Pynchon, and a Discovery Award at the Hollywood Film Festival. As an arctic gonzo Bildungsroman, it follows the first-person narrator through a gamut of youthful experimentation: from soulful (or rancid) bohemian decadence to Rolex-wristed money-grabbing, with the usual perilous consequences. (See Sibirischer Schwindel, Eichborn, Frankfurt, 2002, also at amazon.de)

His next book, Marx for a Post-Communist Era: On Poverty, Corruption and Banality (Routledge, 2002), heralded a return to philosophy, but in a more accessible non-academic style. Drawing on extensive exposure to the developing world (besides Russia, he also lived two years in Thailand in the late 1990s), it's an essayistic take on Marx's legacy and the ongoing tensions between market interests and the public good.

In addition to books and academic articles, Sullivan has contributed to The Washington Post, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington City Paper, The Washington Times, and Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany`s leading national daily. In 2003, his Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazin story on the Argentine elite was nominated for a Hansel Mieth prize for best magazine feature writing. He has also made numerous appearances on German radio, including leading literary talk shows (See Author Interview with Berlin`s leading daily, Der Tagesspiegel, at: http://stefansullivan.com/disc.htm)

Outside of writing, Sullivan has had a lifelong interest in piano and church organ. In Oxford, he was the house lounge pianist at the hot spot Freud's on Walton Street, and in Washington, hosted a weekly piano/vocals act at Staccato on the Adams Morgan nightlife strip. Now relocated to Basel, Switzerland with his wife, Marina, and two little boys, a return to smoky nightclubs and after-hours mania looks unlikely. Maybe just some suave Rhine terrace tickling.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars freedom through Marxism, December 16, 2004

By 

D. Kingdamo (San Diego) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marx for a Post-Communist Era: On Poverty, Corruption and Banality (Ideas) (Hardcover)

Marx for a Post Communist Era relates central themes of Marx's work by exposing the reader to current issues of the capitalist system. Sullivan accurately introduces the historical works on Marx that would provide a good foundation for those unfamiliar with Marx as a philosopher. Sullivan addresses common misconceptions about Marx's relation to totalitarian regimes such as Russia and China. In doing so, he rediscovers Marx's relevant criticisms that can be leveled at our current economic system. Sullivan offers three barriers to Marx's conception of freedom that are linked to Capitalism.
Poverty illuminated capitalism's hand in perpetuating the disparity between capitalists and workers. It contains a lot of current, real world examples that help convey what Sullivan was trying to communicate.
Corruption showed how the conditions of poverty were perpetuated by corruption from leaders within bureaucracy. It also demonstrates the relative ineffectuality of mass protests on the grounds that it cannot bring about a change within the system and as a whole, only accomplishing the blocking of traffic.
Banality addressed the issue of what would happen if Marx's vision was actualized. It seems even if we get past the social restraints that poverty and corruption are, we are faced with this problem of banality. Our lives are still faced with inhibitors of true social value.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Needed Reckoning, September 26, 2008

By 

Douglas Doepke (Claremont CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marx for a Post-Communist Era: On Poverty, Corruption and Banality (Ideas) (Paperback)

Few intellectual reckonings are more important than with Marxist thought in the post-Soviet era. Sullivan's work adds up to a solid contribution, but like many on the liberal-left, assumes that class negotiation can continue to forestall class war. Of course, decades of European social-democracy and American reformism lend tangible substance to that optimism. However, Sullivan's book was published in 2002, before the full effects of capital's counter-attack became so glaringly apparent.

It can now be argued that a renewed war on labor's living standards and international standing took shape with Reagan, accelerated with the Soviet demise, and has gone into overdrive with the Bush administration. The cumulative effects are apparent across the board, from declining real wages, to growing wealth disparities, to a disappearing middle-class. Moreover, how long European social democracy can resist these basically American trends is unclear. At the same time, France's Sarkoszy government looks to be the neo-liberal stalking horse on the continent.

Now, I'm not scholarly enough to know whether such trends refurbish classic Marxian themes like declining rate of profit or classic Leninist variants. What is apparent is that capital has been waging a one-sided war for several decades now, while working people cling to a social contract now in shreds, and that the only proposed alternative to capitalism's manifest failures is more capitalism.This historic rout would not have been possible without a corresponding decline of class consciouness and labor militancy traditionally supplied by Marxist agitation and socialist alternatives. And though Sullivan appears to have written off the Soviet experience as a complete failure, reassessment of their successes as well as failures is also in order.

It's telling that nowhere in his reconstruction does Sullivan mention a central Marxian contention, viz. Historical Materialism. That's understandable. Few would now believe that history is marching toward any inevitable future, given the complications of 20th century technology and environmental destruction. As a result, an unstoppable socialist triumph shapes up as a reflection of Marx's faith in Enlightenment ideals and a theoretical relic. Nonetheless, if class struggle fails to define history's course, it certainly lies at the heart of capitalist society. And Marxism's continuing relevance lies in the penetration beyond the nostrums of liberalism and democracy to the persistant realities of poverty and oppression at the heart of wage labor. The fact that such miseries are resurfacing in the metropole of Western capital implies the end of a reformist era and the necessity of renewed Marxist analysis. Sullivan should consider an updated new edition.