The essays in this collection make up the first study of “dropping out” of late state socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. From Leningrad intellectuals and Berlin squatters to Bosnian Muslim madrassa students and Romanian yogis, groups and individuals across the Eastern Bloc rejected mainstream socialist culture. In the process, multiple drop-out cultures were created, with their own spaces, music, values, style, slang, ideology and networks. Under socialism, this phenomenon was little-known outside the socialist sphere. Only very recently has it been possible to reconstruct it through archival work, oral histories and memoirs. Such a diverse set of subcultures demands a multi-disciplinary approach: the essays in this volume are written by historians, anthropologists and scholars of literature, cultural and gender studies. The history of these movements not only shows us a side of state socialist life that was barely known in the west. It also sheds new light on the demise and eventual collapse of late socialism, and raises important questions about the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western subcultures.

This multidisciplinary collection of essays examines alternative subcultures in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the era of late socialism. The contributors analyze how these marginal communities rejected mainstream socialist culture, sought ideological and physical space from the state, and contributed to the demise of the USSR.

Study of historical political theory and social theory, with particular reference to late 19th-century and early 20th-century nationalist, socialist and communist ideology - covers the theory of hegel, marx, engels, bakunin, lassalle and others, and refers to political party and trade union activities, labour movements and other social movements, national level and international aspects, social leadership, political leadership, etc. Bibliography pp. 237 to 243, and references.

This work on the decline of French radicalism was conceived after the fall of the Berlin Wall as an essay on the decline and decay of the revolutionary idea in European politics. The theme provided an organizing principle for Roger Kaplan's analysis of the evolution of the French left in the wake of events for which it was politically and intellectually unprepared. Kaplan provides a basis for understanding the performance of a French socialist regime in power, one more uncertain of its mission than at any other time in its history. The paradox of French radicalism is that when it was out of office, it was quite certain about its mission. When it attained power, it lost its sense of mission, and hence its confidence as to the proper uses of power. "Conservative Socialism" for Kaplan is not simply an invention of the Mitterand Era, but an ideology rooted in French history. Unwilling or unable to embrace the social democratic idea of the "third way," French socialism became a force to conserve particularism in French culture and nationalism in its foreign policies. While socialism had long become a force to inhibit the rise of capitalism and freedom in France, the decline of its radicalism was inevitable. This is because in a country as conservative as France it was necessary for socialists and their assorted allies, to project a conservative image to be trusted. In France, the Left has abandoned the idea of radicalism so as to exercise power. Kaplan's unique and imaginative reading of French political history will have a profound effect on how that nation is perceived in this new epoch of the European Union. He argues persuasively and fairly that the French Left is alive if not well. The Left rose to power in France despite its policy failures, embarrassments, because it transcended the "end" to which its political dogma would have consigned it. Conservative Socialism will have a stunning impact on how political theorists view political developments in France and Europe. Roger F.S. Kaplan is a journalist and magazine editor currently writing on political and literary subjects for a variety of publications, including the Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic, and Commentary. He has served in the policy office of the Board of International Broadcasting (the editorial writing bureau attached to the Voice of America, 1999-2000) as director of publications for Freedom House (1992-1997) where he edited Freedom Review. and as a consultant for the International Council for Human Rights Policy in Geneva. "Roger Kaplan is one of our keenest observers of French politics and deserves to be better known. His book is a meticulous study of the French left during the Mitterrand years, but it is also a contribution to our understanding of how Europeans in general are coping--ideologically and practically--with the post-Cold War world. Though a work of history, this is a vital and timely book for anyone concerned with contemporary politics."--Mark Lilla, University of Chicago "Roger Kaplan's book, Conservative Socialism is one of the best analysis I ever read about the evolution of the French left and even the European Left since 1980."--Jean-Francois Revel "Roger Kaplan offers a penetrating, incisive, and extremely well informed look into the arcane complexities of French Socialism, which has been struggling to unite an ideology rooted in the French revolutionary tradition with the issues posed by guiding a country with a large-scale capitalist economy. Kaplan knows France from the inside, and his book is a fascinating read for anyone concerned with the social-political history of the last half-century."--Joseph Frank

China, Laos, and Vietnam are three of a handful of late socialist countries where capitalist economics rubs up against party-state politics. In these countries, sweeping processes of change open up new vistas of opportunity and imaginaries of the future alongside much uncertainty and anxiety, especially for their large rural populations. Contributors to this edited volume demonstrate the diverse ways in which rural people build futures in this unique policy landscape and how their aspirations and desires are articulated as projects involving both citizens and the state. This produces a politics of development that happens through and around the state as people navigate discourses of betterment to imagine and make new futures at individual and collective levels.

[Analyzes] economy in 'kin categories' - wife, father, daughter, brother....[Weinbaum] explains better than Marx the roles of each of these individuals within the economic system.--Seventh Sister

This book presents a narrative of one of the more interesting utopian experiments in comparative political and economic history: the first decade of the Soviet experience with socialism (1918-1928). Though historical and textual analysis, the book’s goal is to render this experience intelligible, to get at the meaning of the Soviet experience with socialism for comparative political economy today. The book examines the texts of Lenin, Bukharin, and other revolutionaries, as well as the interpretations of contemporary historians of the revolution and the writings of more recent interpreters of Soviet political and economic history. Arguing that the first three years of the Bolshevik regime (1918-1921) constitute an attempt to carry out the Marxian ideal of comprehensive central planning, and that the disastrous results, which all commentators agree occurred, were the inevitable outcome of this Marxian ideal coming into conflict with the economic reality of the coordination problem that all economic systems face, the book draws clear conclusions and elucidates the air of mystery that often surrounds the subject. Offering a radical challenge to contemporary comparative political economy at the level of high theory, applied research, and public policy, this book is appropriate for students and scholars interested in Marxism, economic history, political economy, and Austrian economics.

This book traces the rise and fall of French romantic socialism through the life of one of its most influential representatives, Victor Considerant (1808-1893).

A sweeping, ambitious history of American democratic socialism from one of the world’s leading intellectual historians and social ethicists “Dorrien is supremely qualified for the task he has set himself in this very thoughtful, necessary, and timely book.”—Maurice Isserman, author of The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington Democratic socialism is ascending in the United States as a consequence of a widespread recognition that global capitalism works only for a minority and is harming the planet’s ecology. This history of American democratic socialism from its beginning to the present day interprets the efforts of American socialists to address and transform multiple intersecting sites of injustice and harm. Comprehensive, deeply researched, and highly original, this book offers a luminous synthesis of secular and religious socialisms, detailing both their intellectual and their organizational histories.