مارکسیست‌ها

by C. Wright Mills, خشایار دیهیمی (Translator)

این کتاب پیش‌درآمدی است بر انواع مارکسیسم و عمدتاً برای کسانی نوشته شده است که جداً این فلسفه‌ها را نمی‌شناسند و تظاهر هم نمی‌کنند که می‌شناسند. همچنین این کتاب برای مطالعۀ افرادی هم هست که با مارکسیسم آشنایند اما بر این باورند که کمونیستها مارکسیسم را دربست بلعیده‌اند پس دیگر نمی‌تواند از آنِ ایشان باشد؛ و نیز برای آنهایی که گرفتار این پندارند که مارکسیسم صرفاً یک ایدئولوژی است، و امروزه دیگر یا به آخر خط رسیده یا باید برسد. این کتاب برای آن گروه هم هست که از سیاست و فلسفۀ سیاسی ملول شده‌اند و در لاک زندگی خصوصی خویش خزیده‌اند ــ یا هرگز از این لاک بیرون نخزیده‌اند. اگر این کتاب بتواند این‌گونه افراد را فقط یک گام به‌ پذیرش وظایف شهروندی تمام‌عیار نزدیک کند، به هدف اساسی خویش دست یافته است.

سی. رایت. میلز پژوهشگری بود که هم دانشگاهيان و هم شهروندان عادي آثارش را مطالعه می‌‌كردند. اهمیت زندگی دانشگاهی میلز در این بود كه سعی داشت به رسالت روشنفكری خود صمیمانه وفادار مانده و خلافِ روح زمانه، نماینده‌ی راستین افكار انتقادی زمان خود باشد؛ به همین دلیل از متخصصان علوم اجتماعی كه به‌عنوان مشاور به خدمت بنگاه‌های تبلیغاتی و تجاری درآمده بودند و دانش خود را وسیله‌ی مقاصد آن‌ها قرار داده بودند، ولی در عین حال خود را متخصص «بی‌طرف» می‌نامیدند، سخت خشمگین بود. هنگامی كه به شوروی دعوت شد و به‌عنوان منتقد جامعه آمریكایی مورد احترام قرار گرفت، حتی رهبر وقتِ شوروی نیز از انتقادهای آتشین او مصون نماند.

Genres: Politics, History, Philosophy, Sociology, Nonfiction, Academic

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Charles Wright Mills was an American sociologist and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual journals, and is remembered for several books, such as The Power Elite , White Collar: The American Middle Classes and The Sociological Imagination .

Mills was concerned with the responsibilities of intellectuals in post–World War II society, and he advocated public and political engagement over disinterested observation. One of Mills's biographers, Daniel Geary, writes that Mills's writings had a "particularly significant impact on New Left social movements of the 1960s era." It was Mills who popularized the term "New Left" in the U.S., in a 1960 open letter "Letter to the New Left".

Reviews

[Mohammadreza · Rating 2 out of 5]

این کتاب به هیچ وجه مقدمه ای بر مارکسیسم نیست...

نیمی از کتاب عیناَ نوشته های مارکس و انگلس و سایر افراد کمونیست و مارکسیست است. ابتدای فصل اول نوشته شده "این کتاب پیش درامدی بر انواع مارکسیسم است" . به نظر من که اینطور نیست. کتاب تخصصی تر از یک "پیش درامد" است. بنظرم برای فهم گونه های متفاوت مارکسیسم کتاب "اندیشه های مارکسیستی نوشته حسین بشیریه" به مراتب بهتر است. البته که کتاب جناب بشیریه هم به همین اندازه کسالت بار است اما از نظر دقت بررسی بنظرم در سطح بالاتری قرار دارد و هم اینکه نیمی از کتاب صرف کپی پِیست نوشتار های مارکسیست ها نشده.

پ.ن: جناب دیهیمی مترجم بسیار توانمندی هستند اما ترجمه این کتاب بنظرم بسیار ضعیف و غیر قابل فهم بود.بخصوص قسمت های مربوط به ترجمه متون مارکس در مانیفست کمونیست ,سرمایه و تز هایی درباره فویرباخ (مخصوصا) به خصوص فلسفی بودنش که شدیدا غیر تخصصی بود.

[Mohammad Mirzaali · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب سی رایت میلز هنوز که هنوز است توسط مترجم تکمیل نشده است و فصول انتهایی و مهم از آن در چاپ جدید هم به چشم نمی‌خورد. با این حال قلم میلز بسیار روشن‌گر و واضح است. ارجاعات مکرری به متون پدران مارکسیزم در کتاب وجود دارد؛ فصل جالبی هم در بیان فهرستی از اندیشه‌های مارکسیزم و فصل درخشان دیگری در نقد مارکس. در کل مفید و ناقص است و با وجود این‌که در دهه‌ی شصت نگاشته شده است، هیچ خالی از بصیرت‌بخشی نیست

[Claudio Saavedra · Rating 2 out of 5]

While C. Wright Mills does an interesting analysis of Marxist-Leninist theory in this book, it is a terrible disappointment to find out that only 150 pages are written by him. The other 300 pages (two thirds of the book) are extracts from classical texts of the left by Marx, Engels, Bernstein, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Khrushchev, Mao, Guevara, and others.

The extracts that Mills has included in this book are fairly good (ranging from classical marxist-leninist introductory texts to many different revisionists of the post-Stalin era), but there is very little analysis on them. It is hard to understand the goal that Mills had in mind with this book, other than, perhaps, introduce the liberal and sectarian US-audience of the '60's to a theoretical overview of Marxism, without all the propaganda of the era. But is this enough of a contribution from a man who is regarded as one of the fathers of modern sociology? I think he falls short, and the event of his sudden death, the same year this book was published, left what would have been a very rich discussion out of the question.

Also, Mills might not explicitly admit his bias against Stalin, but he is not very subtle either in under-representing him and other Stalinist authors and going to lengths to let critics of Stalinism and the early soviet years to explain themselves: about 50 pages are dedicated to this, including a rather large section of Trotsky's "Revolution Betrayed".

All in all, despite that this can be considered to be only slightly above the traditional western criticism of Marxism, I think I'd recommend to anyone interested in Mills', the thinker, to read the first 150 pages and then move on. There are better introductory programs to Marxist thinkers out there than this one.

[Louis-Phillipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I share in the remorse of other readers that not more of the text is composed of Mills' own words, in my case the clarity and force of his argument in the ~150 page introductory essay, which I think I would now like to read again, carried me through the rest of the book, which is comprised of carefully chosen and wide-ranging excerpts of writers in the Marxist tradition, from Rosa Luxembourg, Eduard Bernstein, Lenin and Mao to Khrushchev and Che, confirming or illustrating Mills' previously made points in the words of the Marxists themselves, thereby giving context to and making interesting these various works, most of which might have been too dull to read otherwise. Put in his historical context Marx is revealed by Mills as a stereotypical example, or perhaps the logical extreme, of western humanist thinking, who forever changed the course of the social sciences, and altered the destiny of mankind itself, with his brilliant but fundamentally flawed theories of capitalism, history and class conflict. One could even say he was one of the founding fathers of capitalism, or at least a "crazy uncle." Reading The Marxists greatly enhanced my understanding of the differences and similarities between Marx and Marx-ism, and the importance of and problems with both. Some interesting Marxists excerpted that I had never heard of before were Rudolf Hilferding, author of Finance Capital, and Edvard Kardelj, a leading political figure in socialist Yugoslavia, a topic I knew nothing about. Though few of Marx's intellectual descendants have made such resounding impacts on the social sciences, following his dictum to not simply interpret the world but transform it, what they lacked in original contributions to philosophy they made up for in material deeds, for better or worse.

[Michael Palkowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mills analysis of Marxism is astute, reasoned and well articulated at points but his contribution is too thin and ultimately blase here. The book is very lazy in reproducing entire segments of Marxist texts. Whilst there is a novelty in this approach, as it seems like Mills is offering texts in a private curriculum, it pails in comparison to the pedagogic style of Pounds ABC of Reading for example. The reader also comes to the text on the weight and power of Mills analysis and whilst he can clear up difficulties, his understanding at times is irrelevant. For example his lengthy discussion comparing liberalism, which has evolved significantly since the writing of this text. His insights have not stood the text of time here as a piece of commentary which must evaluate a subject of considerable depth. A better format might have been similar to Thomas Sowell's book on Marxism, which offers a critical analysis on the part of the author, without the tedious reproductions.

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice collection, which has a sense of historicity to itself by virtue of being Mills's last work and being published at the height of the cold war. The most interesting bits--if you have read the excerpts elsewhere, that is--are Mills's sociological evaluations of Marxist theory. An American radical sociologist, Mills is not easily pigeonholed as a Marxist, despite being sympathetic to the theory. This gives his views a unique twist compared to the somewhat tiresome wringing about orthodoxy that European Marxists were embroiled in at the same time.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mills weaves quite a quilted array of Marxian history here. He frames his arguments and uses the actual writings and speeches of Marxist thinkers to provide the substance. The scope and vantage point (Mills was an American sociologist) made it seem compelling and reliable.

I'm looking forward to reading the The Power Elite next.

[Julian_vamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for an introduction to Marxism.

[NC32 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-Read

[juicyD · Rating 2 out of 5]

was hoping i’d learn more about practical applications of marxism but it’s just people with different theories disagreeing with each other. a lot like social media!