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caliesha's review
The continuing hope of socialism rests with Marx's conviction that mankind's inescapable labor can become the means of its self-expression, not of its self imprisonment.
I'm not going to rate this because my main takeaway relates to the ideas Heilbroner raised, rather than his writing style or organization, but I did enjoy my read. I decided to keep my beliefs confusing by listening to Lana Del Rey croon about old money while reading this.
Anyway, I initially picked this up to learn more about Marx's view of dialectics and historical materialism and I'm quite pleased with Heilbroner's analysis, specifically his use of Hegelian theory to contextualize Marx. At times, his discussion was clouded by economic terminology that was largely lost on me, but I did appreciate the focus on socialism as an arm of communism rather than an enemy of capitalism. Heilbroner does a good job of presenting Marx/Engel's words alongside those of folks like Adam Smith to show how these ideologies were not as distinct as modernity presents them to be. Heilbroner seems to be more on the "for" side than the "against," with most of his criticisms focusing on modern problems that Marx did not anticipate. He recognizes that economics cannot be the sole base on which the superstructure of political awareness rests; awareness of racism and feminism is needed to implement socialism. Some of Heilbroner's thoughts seem outdated, namely his focus on Plato and Freud, but that's to be expected with a book published in 1980.
I'm not going to rate this because my main takeaway relates to the ideas Heilbroner raised, rather than his writing style or organization, but I did enjoy my read. I decided to keep my beliefs confusing by listening to Lana Del Rey croon about old money while reading this.
Anyway, I initially picked this up to learn more about Marx's view of dialectics and historical materialism and I'm quite pleased with Heilbroner's analysis, specifically his use of Hegelian theory to contextualize Marx. At times, his discussion was clouded by economic terminology that was largely lost on me, but I did appreciate the focus on socialism as an arm of communism rather than an enemy of capitalism. Heilbroner does a good job of presenting Marx/Engel's words alongside those of folks like Adam Smith to show how these ideologies were not as distinct as modernity presents them to be. Heilbroner seems to be more on the "for" side than the "against," with most of his criticisms focusing on modern problems that Marx did not anticipate. He recognizes that economics cannot be the sole base on which the superstructure of political awareness rests; awareness of racism and feminism is needed to implement socialism. Some of Heilbroner's thoughts seem outdated, namely his focus on Plato and Freud, but that's to be expected with a book published in 1980.
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