Sartre Against Stalinism

Most critics of the political evolution of Jean-Paul Sartre have laid emphasis on his allegedly sympathetic and uncritical attitude to Stalinist Communism due, to a large extent, to their equation of Marxism with Stalinism. It is true that Sartre was guilty of many serious misjudgements with regard to the USSR and the French Communist Party. But his relationship with the Marxist Left was much more complex and contradictory than most accounts admit. This book offers a political defence of Sartre and shows how, from a relatively apolitical stance in the 1930s, Sartre became increasingly involved in the politics of the Left; though he always distrusted Stalinism, he was sometimes driven to ally himself with it because of the force of its argument. "Most critics of Jean-Paul Sartre's political evolution have emphasised his allegedly sympathetic and uncritical attitude to Stalinist Communism due to a large extent to their equation of Marxism with Stalinism. It is true that Sartre was guilty of many serious misjudgements with regard to the USSR and the French Communist Party but his relationship with the Marxist Left was much more complex and contradictory than most accounts admit. This book offers a political defence of Sartre and shows how, from a relatively apolitical stance in the 1930s, Sartre became increasingly involved in the politics of the Left; through he always distrusted Stalinism, he was sometimes driven to ally himself with it. Sartre was repelled by the Communist Party, yet powerfully drawn to it; he was unable to throw in his lot with the Anti-Stalinist left, yet equally unable to disregard the force of its argument. Sartre against Stalinism demonstrates that the continuing debate with the anti-Stalinist left was an essential component of Sartre's political development, and provides an important key to the understanding of his work as a whole."--BOOK JACKET.

Most critics of the political evolution of Jean-Paul Sartre have laid emphasis on his allegedly sympathetic and uncritical attitude to Stalinist Communism due, to a large extent, to their equation of Marxism with Stalinism. It is true that Sartre was guilty of many serious misjudgements with regard to the USSR and the French Communist Party. But his relationship with the Marxist Left was much more complex and co tradictory than most accounts admit. This book offers a political defence of Sartre and shows how, from a relatively apolitical stance in the 1930s, Sartre became increasingly involved in the politics of the Left; though he always distrusted Stalinism, he was sometimes driven to ally himself with it because of the force of its argument.