Review of Broue's "History of the German Revolution, 1917-1923"
I read this tome years back while a hardened Trotskyist. I can only remember a few points from it, as I wasn't in the best state of mind at the time.
Broadly, this history of the German Revolution covers the political trends that overthrew the Kaiser, established the Weimar Republic, and challenged capitalist hegemony over Germany. It is not, as some may believe, a history of the later counterrevolution.
A few lessons from this tragic history are; the necessity of building the infrastructure of a workers party before the proletarian revolution occurs, the conflicting forces that emerge within a workers party (my reading group concluded that the early ultra-leftism inspired by the lumpenproletarian base could have been avoided if the revolutionary shop stewards decided to join in 1918), and the question of leadership behaviour (at the time I agreed with my reading group in concluding that Levi should have taken the olive branch, but now that I've been expelled from the revolutionary left I'm unsure).
Broadly, this history of the German Revolution covers the political trends that overthrew the Kaiser, established the Weimar Republic, and challenged capitalist hegemony over Germany. It is not, as some may believe, a history of the later counterrevolution.
A few lessons from this tragic history are; the necessity of building the infrastructure of a workers party before the proletarian revolution occurs, the conflicting forces that emerge within a workers party (my reading group concluded that the early ultra-leftism inspired by the lumpenproletarian base could have been avoided if the revolutionary shop stewards decided to join in 1918), and the question of leadership behaviour (at the time I agreed with my reading group in concluding that Levi should have taken the olive branch, but now that I've been expelled from the revolutionary left I'm unsure).
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