Introduction
1. Lenin’s Return - introduces Lenin as someone whose relevance for
our own time is becoming evident
2. One for the Encyclopedias - offers a succinct account of his
life
3. Travesties, Statues and Laughter - focuses more on his
personality
4. Still Kicking: Lenin and His Biographers - how biographers of
our century have dealt with him
5. Revolutionary Democracy - offers a sustained look at what I
believe is the revolutionary-democratic thrust of his thinking and
of what he attempted – contrasted to the horrific dictatorship that
congealed after his death under Joseph Stalin
6. The Great Lenin Debate of 2012 - focuses on recent controversies
(in which I was a participant) about how Lenin did and did not go
about trying to build a revolutionary party – and it also has
something to say about the art and craft of writing history
7. Enduring Legacy - takes up some differences with a prominent
U.S. Marxist analyst, Charles Post, on how (and how not) to
understand “Leninism”
8. Luxemburg and Lenin Through Each Other’s Eyes – explores
relationship, common ground, and differences between Luxemburg and
Lenin
9. Caution: Activists Using Lenin - suggests how Lenin’s approach
might be useful to activists in the United States in the early
twenty-first century
10. Leninism is Unfinished - discusses the open and necessarily
unfinished nature of Leninism – reflecting the nature of social
reality itself
11. The History and Future of Leninism – distinguishes between
accurate and inaccurate depictions of the theory and practice of
Lenin and his comrades, indicating how this can be utilized and
further developed in the twenty-first century.
Ads in the International Socialist Review and socialistworker.org
Paul Le Blanc is a professor of History at La Roche College, has written on and participated in the U.S. labor, radical and civil rights movements, and is author of such books as Marx, Lenin and the Revolutionary Experience, and Lenin and the Revolutionary Party.
"For more than a century Lenin has been a constant source of
inspiration for workers and revolutionaries striving to shape
democratic and equitable societies throughout the world. Unfinished
Leninism is a powerful and stimulating guide to Lenin’s political
thought and abiding legacy that is essential reading for students
and activists who are striving to realize an ethical and
revolutionary democratic society today."Immanuel Ness, Ours to
Master and To Own and Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest.
Illuminating much misunderstood aspects of Lenin's legacy with
flair and originality, Paul Le Blanc breathes new vigor into a
century-old approach to social transformation. A major addition to
our understanding of twenty-first century socialism.”John Riddell,
editor Toward the United Front
"One doesn’t have to be a Leninist to read and appreciate Paul Le
Blanc’s brilliant essays. This is indeed an outstanding study of
Lenin’s ideas, his relation to Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg, as
well as his unfinished democratic revolutionary legacy."Michael
Löwy Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
"Paul Le Blanc likes to "spin his remarks around quotations", and
luckily he is a great quoter. He finds eloquent comments from a
century's worth of activists and historians, and engages with them
passionately. He lets us have our own voice (I say "us" because I
am honored to be among those quoted) and yet weaves all the
quotations into a searchingly individual view of what it means to
be a leftist and a self-proclaimed Leninist in the twenty-first
century. And indeed, his conception of the way forward for the left
centers on listening, and then on presenting one's own view
forthrightly -- on conducting an adult conversation about
life-and-death issues. To read his book is to join in his questing
interrogation of past, present, and future."Lars Lih, author Lenin
Rediscovered
"Unfinished Leninism is a stimulating book on the life and ideas of
Lenin but also on the history and future of the doctrine connected
with his name."Ron Blom, De Socialist
Praise for Lenin and the Revolutionary Party:
"A work of unusual strength and coherence, inspired not by academic
neutrality but by the deep conviction that there is much to learn
from the actual ideas and experiences of Lenin and the
revolutionary party he led.” Michael Löwy
Praise for Revolution, Democracy, Socialism:
We desperately need the resurrection and revival of the kind of
strategic thinking and principled commitment that Lenin epitomised
in the era of 1917, and all that it promised. For those interested
in this rebirth of the politics of alternative to capitalism, Paul
Le Blanc's account of the democratic, socialist, and revolutionary
Lenin will prove indispensable. Reading it is a reminder that what
is, need not be, and that what has, seemingly, failed, can be
reconstituted anew.” Bryan Palmer
Praise for Marx, Lenin and the Revolutionary Experience:
Looking back at the tumultuous events associated with
revolutionary Marxism in the past century, Paul Le Blancoffers us
an insightful, sympathetic, and even-handed assessment of the
sources of its dynamism as well as the causes of its decline.”
Walden Bello
"For more than a century Lenin has been a constant source of
inspiration for workers and revolutionaries striving to shape
democratic and equitable societies throughout the world. Unfinished
Leninism is a powerful and stimulating guide to Lenin’s political
thought and abiding legacy that is essential reading for students
and activists who are striving to realize an ethical and
revolutionary democratic society today."—Immanuel Ness, Ours to
Master and To Own and Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest.
“Illuminating much misunderstood aspects of Lenin's legacy with
flair and originality, Paul Le Blanc breathes new vigor into a
century-old approach to social transformation. A major addition to
our understanding of twenty-first century socialism.”—John Riddell,
editor Toward the United Front
"One doesn’t have to be a Leninist to read and appreciate Paul Le
Blanc’s brilliant essays. This is indeed an outstanding study of
Lenin’s ideas, his relation to Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg, as
well as his unfinished democratic revolutionary legacy."—Michael
Löwy Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
"Paul Le Blanc likes to "spin his remarks around quotations", and
luckily he is a great quoter. He finds eloquent comments from a
century's worth of activists and historians, and engages with them
passionately. He lets us have our own voice (I say "us" because I
am honored to be among those quoted) and yet weaves all the
quotations into a searchingly individual view of what it means to
be a leftist and a self-proclaimed Leninist in the twenty-first
century. And indeed, his conception of the way forward for the left
centers on listening, and then on presenting one's own view
forthrightly -- on conducting an adult conversation about
life-and-death issues. To read his book is to join in his questing
interrogation of past, present, and future."—Lars Lih, author Lenin
Rediscovered
"Unfinished Leninism is a stimulating book on the life and ideas of
Lenin but also on the history and future of the doctrine connected
with his name."—Ron Blom, De Socialist
Praise for Lenin and the Revolutionary Party:
"A work of unusual strength and coherence, inspired not by academic
neutrality but by the deep conviction that there is much to learn
from the actual ideas and experiences of Lenin and the
revolutionary party he led.” —Michael Löwy
Praise for Revolution, Democracy, Socialism:
“We desperately need the resurrection and revival of the kind of
strategic thinking and principled commitment that Lenin epitomised
in the era of 1917, and all that it promised. For those interested
in this rebirth of the politics of alternative to capitalism, Paul
Le Blanc's account of the democratic, socialist, and revolutionary
Lenin will prove indispensable. Reading it is a reminder that what
is, need not be, and that what has, seemingly, failed, can be
reconstituted anew.” —Bryan Palmer
Praise for Marx, Lenin and the Revolutionary Experience:
“Looking back at the tumultuous events associated with
revolutionary Marxism in the past century, Paul Le Blancoffers us
an insightful, sympathetic, and even-handed assessment of the
sources of its dynamism as well as the causes of its decline.”
—Walden Bello
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