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Moses Hess: The Holy History of Mankind and Other Writings
The Holy History of Mankind was published in 1837, the first book-length socialist tract to appear in Germany, representing an unusual synthesis of Judaism and Christianity. (Moses Hess was a major figure in the development of both early communist and Zionist thought.) Shlomo Avineri provides the first complete English translation of this classic text, along with new renditions of Sozialsmus und Kommunismus and Ein Kommunistisches Bekenntis. The volume includes a chronology, concise introduction and notes for further reading.
- GenresPolitics
192 pages, Paperback
First published December 2, 1837
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About the author
Moses Hess
40 books16 followersMoses Hess was a Jewish philosopher and socialist, and one of the founders of Labor Zionism. Hess was notably a friend and collaborator of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Hess converted Engels to Communism, and introduced Marx to social and economic problems.
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October 30, 2023
The Holy History of Mankind is a fascinating text, giving a history of the world in three ages: Adam to Christ, Christ to Spinoza, Spinoza to the French Revolution and beyond. It's a deliberate Judaization of Hegel's world history, replacing Athens with Jerusalem, and beginning modern philosophy with Spinoza instead of Kant. He talks about Hegel's dialectics with organic metaphors, with the "root", "crown" or "stem", and "fruit", replacing "in-itself", "for-itself", and "in-and-for-itself". But he also blurs this trinity with tropes of cyclical history, eg. the birth, golden age, and decline of civilizations. He also seeks parallels between the three ages: "It was neither a deluge of water, as happened after Adam, nor a deluge of nations, as happened after Christ, but a deluge of ideas which arose ominously out of the womb of the era: and it destroyed everything which stood in its way. Let us consider ourselves as a child of the great Revolution which originated in France and has rejuvenated the continent!"
I found the Islamophobia inherent in the narrative of the formation of Germanic Europe, of Reason-able Protestantism versus un-Reasonable pagans with their half-baked religion that serves no teleological purpose, all pretty repugnant. I doubt this was an innovation by Hess, I'd expect it's largely in Hegel, just stated pretty bluntly here.
His political theory in the Holy History is quite Rousseau-ean. Humanity begins with primordial communism and equality, inequality enters the world through the proliferation of fantastic desires, which leads in turn to private property and inherited wealth. He doesn't think communism is possible at the moment, but he thinks that abolishing inheritance rights and the "aristocracy of money" which has replaced the feudal aristocracy would be a good first step.
His ideal state, his Kingdom of God, is Hegelian in its unity through mediation, Kantian in the universality of its laws, Spartan in its renunciation, Platonic in its abolition of the family. It is nationalistic, with everyone working joyously for the fatherland, "internally united and externally strong". It is not communistic - nature "does not teach equality, community of property; it is mountains, trees, flowers, animals, and human beings that actively swarm before the eyes of the beholder; but it does teach harmony – the highest living creatures must serve, after their death, the lowliest ones, and the latter during their lifetime the higher." A highly abstract vision, straight out of the genre of utopia fiction, distinguished mainly by its philosophical pretensions.
In his later writings, he seems to have followed the trend of the Young Hegelians in deciding that first religion, and then the state, are mystifications which need to be abolished. After passing through an anarchist phase, he finally moves much closer to Marx, emphasizing labor, proletarian revolution, and the need for increased productivity.
This book doesn't cover his later, Zionist phase. The translator of "Rome and Jerusalem" says: "Delving into ethnology [race science], Hess was convinced that the doctrine of Cosmopolitanism, which preaches the abolition of national landmarks and the fusion of humanity of one motley mass, has no scientific basis." The following meme is apt:
I found the Islamophobia inherent in the narrative of the formation of Germanic Europe, of Reason-able Protestantism versus un-Reasonable pagans with their half-baked religion that serves no teleological purpose, all pretty repugnant. I doubt this was an innovation by Hess, I'd expect it's largely in Hegel, just stated pretty bluntly here.
His political theory in the Holy History is quite Rousseau-ean. Humanity begins with primordial communism and equality, inequality enters the world through the proliferation of fantastic desires, which leads in turn to private property and inherited wealth. He doesn't think communism is possible at the moment, but he thinks that abolishing inheritance rights and the "aristocracy of money" which has replaced the feudal aristocracy would be a good first step.
His ideal state, his Kingdom of God, is Hegelian in its unity through mediation, Kantian in the universality of its laws, Spartan in its renunciation, Platonic in its abolition of the family. It is nationalistic, with everyone working joyously for the fatherland, "internally united and externally strong". It is not communistic - nature "does not teach equality, community of property; it is mountains, trees, flowers, animals, and human beings that actively swarm before the eyes of the beholder; but it does teach harmony – the highest living creatures must serve, after their death, the lowliest ones, and the latter during their lifetime the higher." A highly abstract vision, straight out of the genre of utopia fiction, distinguished mainly by its philosophical pretensions.
In his later writings, he seems to have followed the trend of the Young Hegelians in deciding that first religion, and then the state, are mystifications which need to be abolished. After passing through an anarchist phase, he finally moves much closer to Marx, emphasizing labor, proletarian revolution, and the need for increased productivity.
This book doesn't cover his later, Zionist phase. The translator of "Rome and Jerusalem" says: "Delving into ethnology [race science], Hess was convinced that the doctrine of Cosmopolitanism, which preaches the abolition of national landmarks and the fusion of humanity of one motley mass, has no scientific basis." The following meme is apt:
Displaying 1 of 1 review