Marxism in a Lost Century : A Biography of Paul Mattick

358 Pages·2014·2.189 MB·English

by  Gary Roth

Marxism in a Lost Century
Historical Materialism
Book Series
Editorial Board
Sébastien Budgen (Paris)
Steve Edwards (London)
Marcel van der Linden (Amsterdam)
Peter Thomas (London)
VOLUME 80
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm
Marxism in a Lost Century
A Biography of Paul Mattick
By
Gary Roth
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roth, Gary.
 Marxism in a lost century : a biography of Paul Mattick / by Gary Roth.
  pages cm. — (Historical materialism book series, ISSN 1570-1522 ; volume 80)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-22779-8 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-28226-1 (e-book)
1. Mattick, Paul, 1904–1981. 2. Communists—United States—Biography. 3. Communists—
Germany—Biography. 4. Communism—United State—History—20th century. 
5. Communism—Germany—History—20th century. I. Title.
 HX84.M295R67 2015
 335.4092—dc23
 [B]
2014037420
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
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issn 1570-1522
isbn 978-90-04-22779-8 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-28226-1 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Acknowledgements  ix
List of Photos  xi
List of Abbreviations  xiii
About the Notes  xiv
1 Introduction  1
2 Children at Work and War  6
At Home  6
Protest and Revolution  13
Revolution in Retreat  21
3 Young Radicals  25
March 1920  25
KAPD  29
4 Between Berlin and Cologne  36
Bouts of Unemployment  36
Movement in Decline  41
Older Friends  47
5 New Worlds  55
Voyages  55
Work and Writing  60
Amalgamation  65
6 Chicago in the Depression  70
Opening Years  70
Opposition and Accusations  77
Across the Country  85
Crisis Theory  90
7 The Unemployed Movement  96
The Workers League  96
Federation and Party  102
Fascism’s Initial Impact  109
The German Émigré Community  114
vi contents
8 The Independent Left  121
German to English  121
Editors’ Reluctance  129
9 International Council Correspondence  136
Pamphlets and Authors  136
The Inevitability of Communism  145
Mid-Decade  151
10 Towards War  159
International Developments  159
Opportunities  163
Living Marxism  172
11 End of an Era  180
Self-Reflections  180
Anti-Fascism  190
12 The War Years  202
Relationships  202
New Essays  207
Leaving Chicago  214
13 New York City  219
Isolation  219
Travelling to Berlin  228
14 Quiet Times  236
Writers’ Bloc  236
Back to Nature  247
Boston  256
15 Rekindling  266
Recent Admirers  266
A New Left  271
16 Reception  281
Discovery in Germany  281
From Marx and Keynes to Roskilde  289
contents vii
17 Winding Down  298
Last Years  298
Illness  302
Archives  311
Works Cited  313
Index   328

Acknowledgements
I am indebted to the many people who contributed to this book in important
ways with letters (deposited at the International Institute of Social History in
Amsterdam) and memories, suggestions, and encouragement shared during
interviews, conversations, and emails: Sam Abramovitch, Claudio Albertani,
Dan Antenen, Signe Arnfred and Jan Birket-Smith, Jörg Asseyer, Robert Barsky,
Walter Boelke, Jr., Uli Bohnen, Gabriella Bonacchi, Volkhard Brandes, Jeremy
Brecher, David Broder, Michael Buckmiller, Paul Buhle, Yvonne Jacquette
Burckhardt, Connie and Uwe Conradt, Ada Cavazzani, Noam Chomsky, John
Clegg, Mario Cogoy, Adam Cornford, Mary Lynn Cramer, Belinda Davis,
Christoph Deutschmann, Norman Epstein, William Evan, the late Jake Faber,
Walter Fähnders, Bjarne Avlund Frandsen, Wesley Frost, Geoffrey Gardner,
Marc Geoffrey and Gisela Richter, Marvin Gettleman, Loren Goldner, Hellmut
Haasis, Linda Hamalian, Finn Hansson, James Herod, David Jacobs, Preben
Kaarsholm, Gabriel and Joyce Kolko (both deceased), Michael Kubina, Rick
Kuhn, David Laibman, Götz Langkau, Ted Leigh, Pricilla Long, Peter Lösche,
Frank Mecklenburg, Seymour Melman, Fred Moseley, Hans-Harald Müller,
Claude Orsoni and Yolande Benarrosh, Antonio Pagliarone, Raúl Páramo-
Ortega, the late Nunzio Pernicone, Christopher Phelps, Anne Porter, Claudio
Pozzoli, Karla Doris Rab, Finn Dam Rasmussen and Line Vestergård, Rudi
Rizman, Kevin Rowley, Edith Schloss, Rudi Schmiede, Eberhard Seifert, Larry
Shute, Justin Spring, Daniel and Rina Saint James, Evan Stark, Hansjoerg Viesel,
Richard Weisskoff, Ursula Welsch, Uwe Wesel, Mary Wheeler, Robert Wheeler,
Jeff Wilson and Floriane Gremion, Michael Wreszin, Steve Wright, David Yaffe,
and Andrew Yarrow.
Florence Barrau-Adams, Nicole Bryan, Angela Rooke, Hélène Sampson,
Anita Sower, and Franck Veyron helped at various stages with research. Almut
Fitzgerald transcribed handwritten letters, some dating to the 1920s and writ-
ten in a script no longer used. At the iish, my thanks to Ella Molenaar and
especially Mieke Ijzermans for her hospitality and special assistance. From
Dana Library at Rutgers University in Newark, many obscure requests were
handled by Natalie Borisovets, Dorothy Grauer, Marlene Riley, Carolyn Foote,
and Glenn Sandberg. Susan Carruthers, Grace Roosevelt, and Danny Hayward
read the manuscript with great care, and I am deeply beholden to each of them
for the time they devoted to this task. One huge benefit of this project has been
the new friends who offered much support and assistance, among them Naomi
Sager, Jorge Valadas and Laure Batier, the late Leif Hansen and Merete Thorøe.
x acknowledgements
To Paul Mattick, Jr., I owe a very special thanks, for the friendship, the many
good meals, comments and suggestions, and the carte blanch access to his
parents’ papers, including the key to their Vermont home, and to Katy Siegel
for her warmth and engagement. This book is dedicated to Ilse Mattick (1919–
2009) and to Anne Lopes, who has accompanied me on this and other journeys
through life, as I have accompanied her.