This text offers an authoritative historiography of German socialist theorist Karl Kautsky and his impact on debates about the Russian Revolution and the contemporary left. Known as the “Pope of Marxism,” Douglas Greene examines the totality of Kautsky’s political career and dissects the fundamental opportunism and passive radicalism that defined his Marxism. He later examines the most substantive Marxist critics of Kautsky, namely Rosa Luxemburg, V. I. Lenin, and Leon Trotsky, while offering a critical assessment of the work produced by scholars and activists, Lars Lih, Eric Blanc, and Mike Mcnair, seeking to revive Kautsky. The New Reformism and the Revival of Karl Kautsky is an important addition to scholarship on the subject and a valuable resource for those interested in the Russian Revolution, German politics, socialism, Marxism, and contemporary left-wing debates.

This book examines the totality of Kautsky's political career and dissects the fundamental opportunism and passive radicalism that defined his Marxism, while also offering a critical assessment of the work produced by scholars and activists seeking to revive Kautsky.

"This text offers an authoritative historiography of German socialist theorist Karl Kautsky and his impact on debates about the Russian Revolution and the contemporary left. Known as the "Pope of Marxism", Douglas Greene examines the totality of Kautsky's political career and dissects the fundamental opportunism and passive radicalism that defined his Marxism. He later examines the most substantive Marxist critics of Kautsky, namely Rosa Luxemburg, V. I. Lenin, and Leon Trotsky while offering a critical assessment of the work produced by scholars and activists, Lars Lih, Eric Blanc, and Mike Mcnair, seeking to revive Kautsky. The New Reformism and the Revival of Karl Kautsky is an important addition to scholarship on the subject, and a valuable resource for those interested in the Russian Revolution, German politics, socialism, Marxism, and contemporary left-wing debates"--

Political Science

This first modern study provides an original and balanced perspective of a theorist whom Lenin referred to as both 'master of Marxism' and 'renegade'. Examining Kautsky's political thought over a period stretching from the Paris Commune to the Second World War, the author argues for the consistency with which Kautsky developed his positions on socialism, democracy, political parties and the role of the proletariat. While Salvadori's analysis is grounded in the debates within the Communist International and the German labour movement, Kautsky emerges as a distinctly modern thinker who produced a Marxist theory of the state, and originated critique of the USSR as a 'state capitalist' system. At this level, it provides a serious and measured exposition of the terms on which arguments for socialist strategy currently move.

'This outstanding political biography traces the development of Kausky as a thinker and a Socialist. The author treats Kautsky with respect and affection without minimizing his weaknesses. In fact, this work could serve as a model for political biographies: it is meticulously researched in archives and libraries; it is written in good, clear, declarative sentences, and it avoids the major pitfall of polemicizing instead of enlightening.' -Bernard K. Johnpoll, Labor History