Episode description

Sean and Andy (recovering from various ailments) are joined by political theorist, Bruno Leipold, to discuss his excellent new book Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx's Social and Political Thought from Princeton University Press on how Marx and Engels developed their theories within and against an 18th century republican pollical milieu that is largely lost to history and the histories of Marxism.

What is republicanism? What distinguishes it from liberalism? How did real world experience with the reactionary Prussian state temper Marxism's preoccupation with civil rights? (How was that preoccupation submerged within Actually Existing Socialism of the 20th century?) How did Marx build upon and surpass republicanism by synthesizing it with communism and large defeating antipolitical strains of socialism?

In the bonus we discuss what is left in the 21st century of republican social theory: the universalizing of capitalist private property as opposed to its abolition. How does this middle class 19th century political economy survive down to this day in republics like the United States? Broadly, what is the relevance of this republican revival for groups like the Independent Labor Club and others who seek a revival of communist politics on a broad basis?

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song: Nas - Black Republican