David Joravsky

Bio: David Joravsky is an academic researcher from Northwestern University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Marxist philosophy & Communism. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 13 publications receiving 51 citations.

Communism in historical perspective

Abstract: THE TIME HAS COME FOR HISTORIANS OF COMMUNISM to draw a line and sum up, although, for the historians as well as the Communists, the difficulties may overwhelm the need. Historiography of the usual sort-"We have learned this but need to know that, within such and such contests of interpretation"-assumes a community of scholars debating a recognizable subject. In this case, the subject defies recognition and the scholars evade community. Most Communist parties, after decades of splintering and denouncing each other's claims to be Marxist revolutionaries, have renounced their own claims. It is as if the Reformation were ending with Protestant churches not only splitting but dissolving, declaring themselves Catholic after all. On the scholarly side, historians have mimicked the fission. Russianists and Sinologists, who must deal with the most significant cases of revolutionary Marxism, have kept apart, each group concentrating on the experience of Communism within its chosen country, as have the separate clusters of historians who study Communist movements and regimes scattered through the other national and regional divisions of the modern world. "World Communism" as a subject of scholarly inquiry has withered away since the 1950s, along with the ideologies that raged in hope or fear of a universal revolutionary party. Indeed, the most sensible studies of "World Communism" contributed to the withering away of ideological fury, by disintegrating the supposedly universal party into particular movements and regimes.'

Evolution of the social contract

Abstract: Preface to the second edition Preface to the original edition Acknowledgments 1. Sex and justice 2. Fairness and commitment 3. Mutual aid 4. Correlated convention 5. The evolution of meaning Postscript Notes References Index.

Russian Psychology: A Critical History

Abstract: Preface Acknowledgements Part I Genteel Disintegration in the West Part II Genteel Disintegration in Russia Part III Genteel Integration in Revolutionary Russia Part IV Plastic Unity Part V Afterward Notes Bibliography Index Students of cultural history, history of ideas.

Science after Stalin: Forging a New Image of Soviet Science

Abstract: ArgumentPost-Stalinist reforms resulted in dramatic changes in the ways of operation of Soviet science: one can say that they altered the very understanding of what science was, or should be, in the socialist society. A new vision came about as a result of political and rhetorical efforts of scientists, who pushed forward their various, often conflicting, agendas acting in accordance with specific rules of Soviet polity. The most visible part of the reform came with the 1961 administrative reorganization of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The related series of changes, however, was much broader and comprehensive, modifying the relationships between science and ideology, politicians and academic researchers, and establishing the very division between fundamental and applied research, which had been strongly rejected during the preceding Stalinist period.

Lenin and the Revolutionary Party

Abstract: For generations, historians of the right, left, and center have all debated the best way to understand V. I. Lenin’s role in shaping the Bolshevik party in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution. At their worst, these studies locate his influence in the forcefulness of his personality. At their best, they show how Lenin moved other Bolsheviks through patient argument and political debate. Yet remarkably few have attempted to document the ways his ideas changed, or how they were in turn shaped by the party he played such a central role in building. In this thorough, concise, and accessible introduction to Lenin’s theory and practice of revolutionary politics, Paul Le Blanc gives a vibrant sense of the historical context of the socialist movement (in Russia and abroad) from which Lenin’s ideas about revolutionary organization spring. What emerges from Le Blanc’s partisan yet measured account is an image of a collaborative, ever-adaptive, and dynamically engaged network of revolutionary activists who formed the core of the Bolshevik party.