Untranslated classics on theory

Submitted by jondwhite on November 6, 2016

What are the best classic works on political theory that are not yet translated into English?

Noa Rodman

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Noa Rodman on November 7, 2016

Kautsky's 1921 response to Trotsky, titled From democracy to state slavery. That is a pretty classic work (obviously in defence of parliamentary democracy).

jondwhite

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by jondwhite on November 7, 2016

Personally more of MEGA and August Comte

Sewer Socialist

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Sewer Socialist on November 8, 2016

i've been curious about mario tronti's operai e capitale, but i couldn't really say it's a classic without reading it.

spacious

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by spacious on November 8, 2016

Sewer Socialist

i've been curious about mario tronti's operai e capitale, but i couldn't really say it's a classic without reading it.

Most of it has been translated. I think Verso is trying to crowdfund a new English edition done by a single translator, but most of it is already available online (including here on libcom), apart from a few sections.

Khawaga

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on November 8, 2016

The parts I've read have been good. And it is considered a classic in Autonomist thought. I'd love to see the whole thing translated.

Noa Rodman

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Noa Rodman on November 9, 2016

Ludwig Börne – Letters from Paris 1830–33.

Engels

"the task of our age is to complete the fusion of Hegel and Börne." "Börne’s directness and healthy outlook proved to be the practical side of what Hegel had in mind, theoretically at least." "Oh, Börne — he writes a style that surpasses everything."

Before he took Engels as his example, Kautsky initially modeled his writing style on Ludwig Börne and Heine. He wrote a series of articles on Börne in Der Sozialist, 1879: Börne. nr. 40, 41, 42 - 18., 22., 25. V. Börne und der Sozialismus, Nr. 44, 45 - 1.,5. VI. Ludwig Börne.

In them Kautsky showed that liberals cannot claim Börne. Börne was the vanguard fighter of the political struggle for socialism. Börne criticized Saint-Simonism because of its mysticism and authoritarian organization. Börne's ideal couldn't solve the social question though: even with universal direct suffrage, with freedom of the press, with the abolition of the lotto (?), with the introduction of progressive income taxation, and liquidation of state debt, the social question remains. Kautsky ascribes this to Börne's lack of understanding of political economy.

Some (iirc Landauer) also tried to claim Börne for anarchism.

A lecture on Börne (and Heine) by Alexander Soros (example how liberals still try to claim him), in passing mentions a supposed lost essay of Marx siding with Heine against Börne. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcWqk5UIV-Y

Also see Raphael Hörmann's "Writing the Revolution: German and English Radical Literature, 1819-1848/49" (2011; thesis 2007, Glasgow) p.233-251: Börne's Shifting Perspective on Proletarian Social Revolution.

Börne spoke of the proletarian class, and I found him use the phrase "dictatorship of the people".

Sewer Socialist

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Sewer Socialist on November 10, 2016

spacious

Sewer Socialist

i've been curious about mario tronti's operai e capitale, but i couldn't really say it's a classic without reading it.

Most of it has been translated. I think Verso is trying to crowdfund a new English edition done by a single translator, but most of it is already available online (including here on libcom), apart from a few sections.

oh, thanks! i didn't realize more than one chapter had been translated.

Anarcho

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Anarcho on November 12, 2016

Well, there are lots...

Luigi Fabbri's book on the Russian Revolution should be translated, given the quality of the other (sadly all too few) writings in English I have seen by him.

Most of Proudhon's books need translating -- not least, "Confessions of a Revolutionary" (on the 1848 Revolution), "The Political Capacity of the Working Classes", volume 2 of "Economic Contradictions", all of his polemic with Blanc and Leroux, amongst others.

The 1913 expended edition of Kropotkin's "Modern Science and Anarchy" needs to be available -- and should be, as I am working on it now. So hopefully next year will see Kropotkin's last book finally published in English.

Also, Kropotkin's articles for Les Temps Nouveaux, and other papers should be translated -- lots of articles on current events (strikes, the Russian Revolution of 1905, etc.) which should help flesh out his revolutionary ideas.

James Guillaume's book on the First International would be good to have in English -- useful source of documents much used.

Luckily, Malatesta's and Bakunin's collected works are on their war.

Mark.

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Mark. on November 12, 2016

Stinas on Greece during the war and civil war. His memoirs deserve a full translation, as does his shorter book EAM-ELAS-OPLA.

Serge Forward

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Serge Forward on November 12, 2016

Luigi Fabbri's book on the Russian Revolution should be translated, given the quality of the other (sadly all too few) writings in English I have seen by him.

Pretty much anything by Fabbri would be great.

Oh, and Carlo Cafiero's abridgement of Marx's Capital. Battlescarred, didn't you say you were working on this?

Entdinglichung

7 years 4 months ago

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Submitted by Entdinglichung on November 12, 2016

Otto Bauer's Die illegale Partei

Eduard Fuchs's 6 volume "Sittengeschichte" (history of morality/eroticism)?

Otto Rühle's Illustrierte Kultur- und Sittengeschichte des Proletariats

Entdinglichung

7 years 4 months ago

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Submitted by Entdinglichung on November 12, 2016

most books by Paul Frölich and Fritz Sternberg's Imperialism

Entdinglichung

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Entdinglichung on November 12, 2016

Josef Strasser's Der Arbeiter und die Nation (Worker and Nation, 1912)

Dimitrije Tucovic's Serbia and Albania (1914)

Entdinglichung

7 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Entdinglichung on November 15, 2016

and the essays by Kurt Mandelbaum and Kurt Brandis about pre-1914 social democracy and leninism, texts written by close collaborators of Karl Korsch in the late 1920ies dissecting the myths about the SPD’s revolutionary character before the treason of 1914