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On Ireland and The Irish Question
Physical description; 518 p., [2] leaves of plates : 2 ports. ; 21 cm. Notes; Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Subjects; Marx, Karl 1818-1883 — Correspondence. Engels, Friedrich 1820-1895 — Correspondence. Philosophers — Correspondence. Irish History. Ireland. Irish Politics
- GenresHistoryNonfictionIreland
518 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
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October 29, 2014
This book is included among my continuing search to gain cultural and historical connection to my ancestral home and people. While it has a lot of useful information, it also seems to have a significant amount of information I consider useless and a waste of paper.
There's an annoying amount of details irrelevent to me. Most of the letters can be skipped, especially those after page 200. I don't care to know about some bill passed in parliament, or who voted for whom. I don't care. This information is not timeless and not vital in the way historical materialism is.
Apparently there was a significant division in the first international ('the international workingmen's association'), in which Marx's side focused on parliamentary activity, while Bakunin's side preferred direct economical struggle against capitalism (which I gather to mean worker's revolt, or something like it).
As I read more of marx and engels's beliefs about how to reach socialism (specifically, in ireland), I realize I disagree with much of what they envision to be the steps toward socialism. Socialist political parties can (and have been) banned, reforms can and are removed, but the working-class will continue to struggle regardless of any political progression.
But, the first half or so was quite good. There was quite a lot more educating of irish history and the conditions of the irish working class in ireland and england, than other irish history books I've read. But there are some details about ireland's geology and climate which I mostly skipped because of its political unimportance to me. So much of this book feels like a lot of hot air - just as I have imagined the ~50-volume 'collected works of marx' likely is.
Historically useful to me is the timeline engels made of ireland's history, which gives a basic understanding of ireland's struggle to exist against near-constant invasion and wars by the english, normans, scottish, danish, german, scandinavians, and so on. This was the historical setting from which the english were able to induce an occupying ruling class, manufactoring famines and enforcing mass exodus (particularly to strain the english working-class), and capturing a significant slave population for the atlantic slave trade. All this has me thinking of similarly-devastated islands and peoples attacked by capitalism and imperialism. For example, similar devastation, associations with slavery, frequent uprisings, manufactured dependence (upon empire), and centuries-long struggle to survive (which is ongoing today), is very similar to that of the history and present situation in Haiti.
Reading on, there was a reasonable amount I didn't understand, such as the excess of numbers, stats, and mathematical analysis of capitalism. I also had some trouble finding a good context for the many historical events, figures, and other such information talked about here. But it wasn't so bad I couldn't still process the basics among subjects I more closely understand (such as the repression of the working-class, through abuse of lease by landowners), and so I still learned a good amount.
This concluding fact is a bit sad considering the previous history book I read about ireland (written by an irish man) was less respectful and knowledgeable of ireland and its people, than was a series of interconnected writings by a couple of german communists.
There's an annoying amount of details irrelevent to me. Most of the letters can be skipped, especially those after page 200. I don't care to know about some bill passed in parliament, or who voted for whom. I don't care. This information is not timeless and not vital in the way historical materialism is.
Apparently there was a significant division in the first international ('the international workingmen's association'), in which Marx's side focused on parliamentary activity, while Bakunin's side preferred direct economical struggle against capitalism (which I gather to mean worker's revolt, or something like it).
As I read more of marx and engels's beliefs about how to reach socialism (specifically, in ireland), I realize I disagree with much of what they envision to be the steps toward socialism. Socialist political parties can (and have been) banned, reforms can and are removed, but the working-class will continue to struggle regardless of any political progression.
But, the first half or so was quite good. There was quite a lot more educating of irish history and the conditions of the irish working class in ireland and england, than other irish history books I've read. But there are some details about ireland's geology and climate which I mostly skipped because of its political unimportance to me. So much of this book feels like a lot of hot air - just as I have imagined the ~50-volume 'collected works of marx' likely is.
Historically useful to me is the timeline engels made of ireland's history, which gives a basic understanding of ireland's struggle to exist against near-constant invasion and wars by the english, normans, scottish, danish, german, scandinavians, and so on. This was the historical setting from which the english were able to induce an occupying ruling class, manufactoring famines and enforcing mass exodus (particularly to strain the english working-class), and capturing a significant slave population for the atlantic slave trade. All this has me thinking of similarly-devastated islands and peoples attacked by capitalism and imperialism. For example, similar devastation, associations with slavery, frequent uprisings, manufactured dependence (upon empire), and centuries-long struggle to survive (which is ongoing today), is very similar to that of the history and present situation in Haiti.
Reading on, there was a reasonable amount I didn't understand, such as the excess of numbers, stats, and mathematical analysis of capitalism. I also had some trouble finding a good context for the many historical events, figures, and other such information talked about here. But it wasn't so bad I couldn't still process the basics among subjects I more closely understand (such as the repression of the working-class, through abuse of lease by landowners), and so I still learned a good amount.
This concluding fact is a bit sad considering the previous history book I read about ireland (written by an irish man) was less respectful and knowledgeable of ireland and its people, than was a series of interconnected writings by a couple of german communists.
Displaying 1 of 1 review