NEW TITLE - Ernest
Mandel: A Rebel’s Dream Deferred
Jan Willem Stutje
With a foreword by Tariq
Ali
Translated by Christopher Beck and Peter Drucker
Published 18th May 2009
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Ernest Mandel (1923-1995), was one of the most prominent
anti-Stalinist Marxist intellectuals of his time. A political theorist and
economist, his worldview was shaped by experiences in the Second World War as
an underground political activist in Occupied Belgium and during his subsequent
internment in a Nazi prison camp. Mandel’s faith in human nature
and in the working classes survived Nazi oppression and the murder of much of
his family in the concentration camps. He retained his connection to his
Jewish roots throughout his life, but believed that security and liberation for
the Jewish people was best achieved through world revolution and universal
emancipation rather than nationalism. A brilliant orator in several
languages, Mandel was an indefatigable revolutionary militant and a key leader
in the Fourth International, He had an enormous impact on the thought and
practice of the 1968 generation. His writings range from innovative
economic and political theory to a study of the Second World War and have been
published in over forty languages. His last major work, Late Capitalism, had an influence that
reached from the social sciences into the humanities. Biographer Jan
Willem Stutje, the first writer with access to Mandel's archives, has
interviewed many of the leading figures in the story and unearthed a wealth of
new material, detailing Mandel’s arrest by the Nazis and his role in
Latin American guerrilla warfare. He recounts Mandel's interactions with
both scholars – Sartre, Ernst Bloch, Perry Anderson - and comrades-in-arms such as Che Guevara,
Rudi Dutschke and Tariq Ali. The book also yields fascinating details of the
man's sometimes tragic private life.
JAN WILLEM STUTJE is a historian affiliated with the
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Praise for Ernest Mandel:
A Rebel’s Dream Deferred:
“An extraordinary accomplishment. This book
deserves a place of honour in the library of anyone who is interested in the
history of twentieth-century revolutionary socialism.” Walter
Lotens, Kritisch lezen
“A masterful and critical biography that reads like a
thriller.” Fred Braeckman, De
Morgen
“Stutje does a good job of avoiding the temptations of
hagiography, and paints a fascinating portrait of Mandel, a Marxist thinker and
radical political figure who is undeservedly almost forgotten.” Piet
Piryns and Hubert van Humbeek, Knack
“This impressive scholarly biography deals not only
with Ernest Mandel, but equally with the success and tribulations of the
Trotskyist movement that he helped lead for decades and with society as a
whole. This smoothly written book inadvertently evokes the image of a
biblical prophet, whose personal life and happiness, loves, friendships and
career were sacrificed time and again to the great struggle against
exploitation and injustice – a man who knew that he had to give up
everything except hope.” Ludo Abicht, AKTIEF
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ISBN 9781844673162 £19.99 / $34.95 / Hardback /
424 pages
Ernest Mandel: A Rebel’s Dream
Deferred is available from all good bookshops and:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/stutje_jw_ernest_mandel.shtml
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781844673162/Ernest-Mandel
US:
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