Socialism Unbound, Vol. 2

Socialism Unbound, by Stephen Bronner, was widely acclaimed when it first appeared in 1990. This second revised edition brings it up to date. Written in a clear prose, and an uncompromising manner, it offers new critical reflections on the tradition of working class politics and its salience for the new millennium. Chronological in structure, broad in scope, its chapters are devoted to the themes associated with the most important figures of the labor movement: Marx & Engles, Karl Kautsky, Eduard Bernstein, Lenin, and Rosa Luxemburg. Each chapter speaks to the contributions and limits of past practices in light of recent political trends. Treating socialism as an ethic, while discarding outworn teleological claims, the conclusion squarely confronts a host of issues including the relation between class and social movements, institutional accountability and participation, revolution and reform, economic justice and market imperatives, internationalism and identity. This second edition of what has been called a classic text indeed articulates the potential contributions of socialist theory for developing a genuinely progressive politics no less than the organizational and ideological challenges it must face in the modern era.

"Socialism Unbound, by Stephen Bronner, was widely acclaimed when it first appeared in 1990. This second revised edition brings it up to date. Written in a clear prose, and an uncompromising manner, i"

Booknews

New edition of a study that offers a new libertarian socialist perspective amid the erosion of communism in the East and the effects of a conservative counter-revolution in the West. The six chapters highlight the importance of political action inside and outside the electoral agenda and show what the tradition generated by the labor movement has to offer in theory and practice. The last chapter contains the most important revision, which is to shift the explication of socialism as a regulative idea with the purpose of transforming capitalist reality to that of identifying socialism with the institutional empowerment of working people, thus treating socialist theory as a form of critical theory informed by the transformative purposes of the class ideal. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Stephen Eric Bronner is professor of political science at Rutgers University. He earned his BA at the City College of New York and his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. His most important books include Ideas in Action: Political Tradition in the Twentieth Century, Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists, and Moments of Decision: Political History and the Crises of Radicalism, which was awarded the Michael Harrington Prize. Professor Bronner is also the series editor of Interventions: Social Theory and Contemporary Politics for Westview Press.