Raya Dunayevskaya Book order

This selection of writings by the Marxist-Humanist philosopher and revolutionary Raya Dunayevskaya grapples with major themes in Marx's ideas and activities.

From her prominent role as Leon Trotsky’s secretary, to the agitational and educational work conducted by her organization News and Letters, the impact of Raya Dunayevskaya’s thinking on the Left in the United States was both lasting and deep. This expertly edited new collection of her writings, with selections from every period of her career, will help a new generation of activists discover the key pillars of the Marxist-Humanist philosophy she helped pioneer. Russia From Proletarian Revolution to State-Capitalist Counter-Revolution begins with Dunayevskaya’s careful reading of Lenin’s notebooks on Hegel, which she saw as his ‘philosophic preparation for proletarian revolution,’ and moves from there to her attempts to grapple with the class nature of the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin. This question, prompted by the march of the Red Army toward conquest of sections of Europe in the lead up to World War II, prompted a fractious debate in the international Trotskyist movement. In response, Dunayevskaya and her collaborator C.L.R. James developed a theory of State-capitalism that became the cornerstone of their intellectual and political work through the rest of the twentieth century.

Few thought systems have been as distorted and sometimes misconstrued as those of Marx and Hegel. Philosophy and Revolution, presented here in a new edition, attempts to save Marx from interpretations which restrict the revolutionary significance of the philosophy behind his theory. Developing her breakthrough on Hegel's Absolute Idea, Raya Dunayevskaya, who died in the June of 1987, aims at a total liberation of the human person--not only from the ills of a capitalist society, but also from the equally oppressive state capitalism of established communist governments. She assumes within her theory of class struggle issues as diverse as feminism, black liberation, and even the new nationalism of third world countries. Moreover, Dunayevskaya combines within herself an incorruptible objectivity with a passionate political attitude, making this work a vibrant and concrete discussion of the vicissitudes of society, justice, equality, and existence.

Exploring the intersection of Hegelian philosophy and Marxist thought, this collection showcases Raya Dunayevskaya's significant contributions to Marxist-Humanism. Co-edited by Peter Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson, it highlights Dunayevskaya's assertion of Hegel's crucial role in Marxism, challenging traditional interpretations. The essays delve into her theories, emphasizing the power of dialectics and revealing her impact as a critical thinker in America. This work not only illuminates her philosophical insights but also celebrates her intellectual legacy.

In this classic exposition of Marxist thought, Raya Dunayevskaya, with clarity and great insight, traces the development and explains the essential features of Marx's analysis of history. Using as her point of departure the Industrial and French Revolutions, the European upheavals of 1848, the American Civil War, and the Paris Commune of 1871, Dunayevskaya shows how Marx, inspired by these events, adapted Hegel's philosophy to analyze the course of history as a dialectical process that moves "from practice to theory". The essence of Marx's philosophy, as Dunayevskaya points out, is the human struggle for freedom, which entails the gradual emergence of a proletarian revolutionary consciousness and the discovery through conflict of the means for realizing complete human freedom

  In this important and wide-ranging critique of Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) Raya Dunayevskaya examines the life, political thought, and action of one of the most critical revolutionary figures of our time. Dunayevskaya sheds new light on the questions of socialist democracy after the revolution, disclosing both the unprobed feminist dimension of Rosa Luxemburg and the previously unrecognized new moments in Marx's last decade concerning the role of women and the peasantry. As the founder of Marxist-Humanism in the United States, Dunayevskaya (1910-87) was an internationally respected writer, philosopher, and revolutionary. This new and expanded edition includes two previously unpublished articles by Dunayevskaya, including her "Challenge to all Post-Marx Marxists."