The German-Dutch communist left - Philippe Bourrinet

Revised edition of Philippe Bourrinet's history of the Dutch and German left communist currents.

Submitted by Spassmaschine on December 26, 2010

See the "Left Wing" Communism - An Infantile Disorder? website for more.

Hard copy available from here.

Comments

ZJW

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by ZJW on September 18, 2020

Below, Mattick Jr's review of this book, the concluding sentence of which is: 'It suggests to this reader nothing less than the work of a Catholic theologian, who has for some reason fallen in love with the Albigensians, though he is ultimately forced to condemn their doctrine as heretical.'

https://bit.ly/32EGS24

Reddebrek

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Reddebrek on September 24, 2020

[HistoricalMaterialistBookSeries,125.]Brill,Leiden2017lxii, 639 pp. ill. €210.00; $252.00.

I'm no stranger to lefty books costing an arm and a leg but bloody hell

darren p

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by darren p on September 24, 2020

FWIW a version of this book was published by the ICC. As far as I can work out without the authors consent. Not sure how to two versions compare.

comradeEmma

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by comradeEmma on September 24, 2020

I think these books are first published by Brill for a steep price but are then republished for a consumer price by Historical Materialism.

Reddebrek

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Reddebrek on September 24, 2020

Historical materialism is the series which is owned by Brill the publisher and its board are on contract with it, I've seen these books sold for cheaper from other retailers, but new still seem to be very steep at around £60-80 except for Haymarket books which is selling many a bit below that, but the prices seem to fluctuate a lot between issues and even with a discount would still look at a very expensive collective price tag for anything approaching a complete set.

Anything cheaper appears to be second hand resellers of individual copies.

comradeEmma

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by comradeEmma on September 24, 2020

Yeah sorry, I meant Haymarket Books, though there is like a year or so between them republishing.

Black Badger

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Black Badger on September 25, 2020

Please don't give your money to trotskyists

comradeEmma

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by comradeEmma on September 25, 2020

ISO has disbanded so I don't know how much you can call haymakret books trotskyists

Reddebrek

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Reddebrek on September 25, 2020

Well, since the ISO disbanded over how it handled sexual assault by a leader and not a mass rejection of trotskyism I don't see what relevance that has. I haven't seen much of political realignment from the group that runs the bookseller.

comradeEmma

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by comradeEmma on September 25, 2020

Going to commit a moscow trials on a book publishing firm

ZJW

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by ZJW on September 28, 2020

Darren:

Bourrinet was an ICC member, and that is how the ICC version, which is the original version, came about. Here, written in their inimitable style, is the ICC side of the story of the dispute between Bourrinet over the ICC's right to continue its distribution:

https://en.internationalism.org/icconline/201502/12079/doctor-bourrinet-fraud-and-self-proclaimed-historian

After leaving the ICC, Bourrinet off-and-on either in French or in English or both, made his constantly revised two books (one about the Dutch; one about the Italians) freely available on his site http://www.left-dis.nl . Presumably he doesn't anymore now that he has got it commercially published. (Copyright.)

I read the internet 'middle versions', but not the ICC version or the Brill version, so, aside from no doubt added information, photos etc, I can't say what the political differences might be at the two ends. (No doubt ICC member Alf would be pleased to tell us us?)

But more important (and having nothing to do with Bourrinet vs the ICC) is the inaccuracy in the book concerning Mattick and company's attitude on Spain:
https://increasinglyadequate.com/commleft_german.html . ( Thanks to klas batalo for posting this link already on May 17. )

Alf

4 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Alf on October 6, 2020

I'm here, now and again..
To be honest I haven't done a comparative read through of both texts. I assume Bourrinet's new version is much less critical of the council communists/councilism than the original. But the real gulf is between different conceptions of political behaviour. As the article linked above shows, Bourrinet crossed a line by threatening legal action against the ICC even though the entire original text was written when he was a member and he agreed to its publication at that time, and even though we later agreed to insert a note ascribing authorship of the text to him.

Reddebrek

3 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Reddebrek on November 2, 2020

Reddebrek

Well, since the ISO disbanded over how it handled sexual assault by a leader and not a mass rejection of trotskyism I don't see what relevance that has. I haven't seen much of political realignment from the group that runs the bookseller.

Well speak of the devil

https://twitter.com/isoleakss/status/1323283378100183045?s=20