The Classic Years of European Marxism, 1887-1936

Gerd-Rainer Horn (1)

1 CHSP - Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po (Sciences Po)

In the 1950s a host of western intellectuals eagerly announced The End of Ideology, a prediction in part based on a precipitous decline in the influence of Marxism in several advanced industrialized states. The world-wide instance and impact of 1968 quickly relegated such triumphant pronoucements to the (temporary) rubbish heap of history. The 1970s, in particular, saw a substantive and unexpected revival of the Marxist tradition in many corners of the globe. Yet the demise of the Portuguese Revolution and the slow extinction of Italy's 'creeping May' did much to dampen European Marxist spirits, leading many erstwhile Marxists to declare, in the course of the 1980s, their Adieux au prole'tariat. Finally, the recent implosion of most examples of 'actually existing socialism' seems to have definitively moved back the clock to the 1950s again, with discussions of The End of History dominating the intellectuals' terrain (...)

Domains: History

Gerd-Rainer Horn. The Classic Years of European Marxism, 1887-1936. Left History, 1994, 2 (2), pp.99-110. ⟨hal-01009836⟩