Description
This book provides a concise and instructive review of the revolutions of the twentieth century, with separate chapters on the Russian, Chinese, Guinea-Bissau, and Vietnamese revolutions, in which the authors seek to extract the principle lessons from each of these struggles and the special course taken by each. In these and in a summary chapter on the dialectics of revolution the authors furnish a picture of the principal aspects of Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, and the other currents of Marxism active in the revolutions of our times. A second section is devoted to the United States, and begins with a survey of the class forces in American history from the settlement of the original thirteen colonies to the present, with special attention to the enslaved black population. Thereafter, the authors present their ideas on the objects and means of an American Revolution.Includes new introduction by Grace Lee Boggs.… (more)
Library's review
More than thirty yrears of experience in the labor, radical, and black movements in the United States area distilled by the authors in these pages. 'We have written this book,' they say in their preface, 'for those Americans of our time who have become aware of the need for profound and
'The author of the American Revolution and Racism and Class Struggle, Alabama-born black writer James Boggs, and New England-born Grace Boggs (the daughter of Chinese emigrants) survey the Russian, Chinese, Portuguese Guinean and Vietnamese revolutions from their Marxist-activist perspectives. Out of their long experience in American labor and civil rights movements they write with an objectivity (and a sense of the cultural depths out of which permanent social change must grow) that lifts their book beyond mere ideological polemics. Every revolution is unique, in their view, and none can be taken for a model. The second half of their book examines American history in terms of class struggle, taking the long view that the poor and the blacks can liberate themselves 'only by liberating American society as a whole.' A stimulating book.'-Publishers Weekly.
Contents
Preface
1 Revolution and Evolution
2 Revisiting the Russian Revolution
3 The Chinese Revolution: Putting Politices in Command
4 The Liberation of Guine: Buliding as We Fight
5 People's War in Vietnam
6 Dialectics and Revolution
7 Rediscovering the American Past
8 A Unique Stage in Human Development
9 Changing Concepts for Changing Realities
10 Correcting Mistaken Ideas About War, Work, Welfare, Women