Marx and Engels: Their Contribution to the Democratic Breakthrough (Suny Series in Political Theory. Contemporary Issues)

"According to Nimtz, no two people contributed more to the struggle for democracy in the nineteenth century than Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Presenting the first major study of the two thinkers in the past twenty years and the first since the collapse of the Soviet Union, this book challenges many widely held views about their democratic credentials and their attitudes and policies on the peasantry, the importance of national self-determination, the struggle for women's equality, their so-called Eurocentric bias, political and party organizing and the possibility for socialist revolution in an overwhelmingly peasant and underdeveloped country like late-nineteenth-century Russia."--Jacket. Read more... Presents the first major study of Marx and Engels in two decades and the only study since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the recognized crisis of global capitalism.According to Nimtz, no two people contributed more to the struggle for democracy in the nineteenth century than Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Presenting the first major study of the two thinkers in the past twenty years and the first since the collapse of the Soviet Union, this book challenges many widely held views about their democratic credentials and their attitudes and policies on the peasantry, the importance of national self-determination, the struggle for women's equality, their so-called Eurocentric bias, political and party organizing, and the possibility for socialist revolution in an overwhelmingly peasant and underdeveloped country like late-nineteenth-century Russia.August H. Nimtz, Jr. is Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Islam and Politics in East Africa: The Sufi Order in Tanzania. Challenging the notion that the works of Marx and Engels were, at their base, fundamentally anti-democratic, Nimtz (political science, U. of Minnesota) chronologically follows the political careers of the two figures in support of his argument. He includes a comparison of the actions of Marx and Engels in the revolutionary year of 1848 with those of an icon of democratic thought Alexis de Tocqueville. His major contentions are that Marx and Engels were as much political activists as intellectuals and that they were leading protagonists in the struggle for universal suffrage and other democratic breakthroughs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR According to Nimtz, no two people contributed more to the struggle for democracy in the 19th century than Karl Marx & Frederick Engels. Presenting the 1st major study of the two thinkers in the past 20 years & the 1st since the collapse of the Soviet Union, this book challenges many widely held views about their democratic credentials & their attitudes & policies on the peasantry, the importance of national self-determination, the struggle for women's equality, their so-called Eurocentric bias, political & party organizing, & the possibility for socialist revolution in an overwhelmingly peasant & underdeveloped country like late-19th-century Russia. The democratic urge and commencement of a revolutionary partnership -- From theory to practice: toward a Communist party -- The revolutions of 1848-1849: participating in the "real movement" -- The end of the revolutionary upsurge and the lessons of struggle -- Interpreting the 1848-181 events in France: Marx and Engels versus Tocqueville -- Political adjustments to the long lull in the class struggle -- A new revolutionary era and the birth of the first international -- The first international: from Brussels to the Paris commune -- The first international: the final years and legacy -- Engels and revolutionary continuity.