Why Marx Was Right

0.48 MB·English

by  Terry Eagleton

Why Marx Was Right

Why Marx Was Right
TERRY EAGLETON
New Haven & London
Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund.
Copyright ∫ 2011 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eagleton, Terry, 1943–
Why Marx was right / Terry Eagleton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-300-16943-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883. 2. Communism. 3. Capitalism. I. Title.
hx39.5e234 2011
335.4—dc22
2010041471
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Dom and Hadi

Contents
Preface ix
Chapter One 1
Chapter Two 12
Chapter Three 30
Chapter Four 64
Chapter Five 107
Chapter Six 128
Chapter Seven 160
Chapter Eight 179
Chapter Nine 196
Chapter Ten 211
Conclusion 238
Notes 241
Index 251
terry eagleton
viii
Preface
T
his book had its origin in a single, striking thought:
What if all the most familiar objections to Marx’s work are
mistaken? Or at least, if not totally wrongheaded, mostly so?
This is not to suggest that Marx never put a foot wrong.
I am not of that leftist breed that piously proclaims that every-
thing is open to criticism, and then, when asked to produce
three major criticisms of Marx, lapses into truculent silence.
That I have my own doubts about some of his ideas should be
clear enough from this book. But he was right enough of the
time about enough important issues to make calling oneself a
Marxist a reasonable self-description. No Freudian imagines
that Freud never blundered, just as no fan of Alfred Hitch-
ix
cock defends the master’s every shot and line of screenplay. I
am out to present Marx’s ideas not as perfect but as plausible.
To demonstrate this, I take in this book ten of the most
standard criticisms of Marx, in no particular order of impor-
tance, and try to refute them one by one. In the process, I also
aim to provide a clear, accessible introduction to his thought
for those unfamiliar with his work.
The Communist Manifesto has been described as ‘‘with-
out doubt the single most influential text written in the nine-
teenth century.’’∞ Very few thinkers, as opposed to statesmen,
scientists, soldiers, religious figures and the like, have changed
the course of actual history as decisively as its author. There
are no Cartesian governments, Platonist guerilla fighters or
Hegelian trade unions. Not even Marx’s most implacable crit-
ics would deny that he transformed our understanding of hu-
man history. The antisocialist thinker Ludwig von Mises de-
scribed socialism as ‘‘the most powerful reform movement
that history has ever known, the first ideological trend not
limited to a section of mankind but supported by people of
all races, nations, religions and civilisations.’’≤ Yet there is a
curious notion abroad that Marx and his theories can now be
safely buried—and this in the wake of one of the most devas-
tating crises of capitalism on historical record. Marxism, for
long the most theoretically rich, politically uncompromising
critique of that system, is now complacently consigned to the
primeval past.
terry eagleton
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