Here’s Engels letter to Bloch in which he makes a case against economic reductionism, at least, in the “first instance.” E.P. Thompson, by no means an economic determinist and in a reply to (or polemic against) Louis Althusser, a French Marxist, said that the economic factor is present not only in the last instance, but in every instance and the role of historians is to uncover how and to what degree. Thompson, it should be said, thought highly of Engels, who in letters at the end of his life, addressed and challenged dogmatic interpretations of the writings of Marx and himself. In the wake of the lively, at times contentious, debate over the rise and fall of Trump, Engels observations/letters when he was an old man, are worth reading (or reading again).
Written by
Sam Webb
I'm a long-time socialist and activist, but new to the blogging world. I hope to bring a different perspective on politics, sports, culture, and Marxism. Besides blogging, I also leave plenty of time for swimming, hiking, ESPN, music, reading, drinking good beer, and, not least, my family and friends. I wish I could play basketball, but my knees ruled out that possibility long ago.
While I currently reside in New York, my politically formative years were spent in Portland, Me. and Detroit during the 1970s and 1980s. I graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (where I played basketball) and received a MA in economics from the University of Connecticut.
I was the national chairperson of the Communist Party, USA from 2000 until 2014 when I stepped down at the convention. In 2016 I resigned from the Communist Party two years later. We were no longer on the same page.
