A spectre, haunting / China Mieville on the Communist manifesto.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781642598933
- ISBN: 1642598933
- Physical Description: 291 pages ; 24 cm
- Publisher: Chicago, IL : Haymarket Books, 2022.
- Copyright: ℗♭2022.
Content descriptions
General Note: | Includes Manifesto of the Communist Party, translated by Samuel Moore (page 173) First published in the UK in 2022 by Head of Zeus Ltd. |
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (page 229-282) and index. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei. Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. Engels, Friedrich, 1820-1895. Communism. Socialism. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Missouri Evergreen. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Rolla Public.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rolla Public Library | NF 335.422 MIE (Text) | 38256101875965 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Kirkus Review
A Spectre, Haunting
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A passionate argument for the continued, urgent relevance of The Communist Manifesto. Though perhaps best known in the U.S. as an award-winning writer of speculative fiction, Miéville has both a doctorate in international relations and a long history as a Marxist. As such, he comes to the topic not as a dilettante but as a learned apostle of the communist creed. The author escorts readers through the Manifesto's origins and publication history before launching into a summary of the document itself. (Samuel Moore's 1888 English translation is appended for reference along with several introductions to various editions.) Miéville's exegesis draws on both external commentators and co-authors Karl Marx's and Friedrich Engels' other writings to inform it. It is when Miéville enters into dialogue with the Manifesto's critics that his own writing comes most robustly to life. In addressing those who take swipes at the document's religiosity, the author responds with an unabashed "So what" and leans in, exhorting readers to "incant the Manifesto, as its catechism-derived rhythms and techniques plead for you to doâ¦.Does not the Manifesto repeatedly describe its aim as rupture?â¦This is an eschatological moment." This is a slim volume but by no means a light one. Miéville's audience is assumed to have either a high degree of comfort with his 75-cent vocabulary or a dictionary (fissiparous, imbricated, apophatic, etc.). Nonetheless, his argument is persuasive, pointing to such contemporary phenomena as America's "vicious, racialized carceral regime" as evidence of capitalism's "excrescences"--and its sinister "adaptability." Like Marx and Engels, Miéville offers no real road map for post-capitalist life, just the certainty that "this carnival of predatory rapacity will [never be] fit to live in." He builds to a rapturous conclusion, thundering from his pulpit as he enlists readers among the "we who reach the tipping point where this unliveable disempowering tawdry ugly violent murderous world can no longer be lived." Rupture as Rapture. We have nothing to lose but our chains. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.