For several years afterwards, this volume was the only widely circulated book on socialism in the US. It comprised essays by some thirty-five noted intellectuals, among them over a dozen from within Eastern Europe, most of them philosophical dissidents, but also a few who hewed more towards the party line. The more dissident Marxist humanists included several who would become prominent in the upheavals of the 1960s in the Eastern bloc, most notably the Prague Spring of 1968. Among the intellectuals from what was then Czechoslovakia were the Marxist humanists Karel Kosík and Ivan Svitak, while Poland was represented by Bronislaw Baczko as well as the more pro-party Adam Schaff, a personal friend of Fromm. What was then Yugoslavia had a particularly large representation, with a number of figures from the dissident philosophers of the Praxis group, among them Mihailo Markovic, Gajo Petrovic and Rudi Supek. From Western Europe, North America and Australia the volume drew upon Marxist philosophers like Marcuse, Dunayevskaya, Goldmann, Ernst Bloch and Eugene Kamenka. As Fromm himself acknowledged in his introduction to the volume, it lacked representation from the Third World.
Just realised I still had an old hard copy of this on my bookshelf left behind by an old Big Flame member. A bit of a 'blast from the past' with an introduction that in some ways seems now outdated, although it correctly situates it's contributors (broadly described as 'socialists' of some sort) in a relevant phase in the evolution of modern global capitalism now past. Some aspects of capitalism remain constant but others shift radically. Not my favourite collection of material but I suppose a useful addition to the libcom library when other varieties of 'humanism' are popular alongside and in claimed opposition to the resurgence of fundamentalist and sectarian religions.Edit: I see the library here also has a copy of 'Escape from Freedom'. A long time since I read much of Fromm's works but I recall thinking he did make me think a lot more about the psychology leading to a 'fear of freedom' still relevant to these times. There was a short favourable review in the Socialist Standard back in the 90's here: -standard/1995/1990s/no-1085-january-1995/and-fromm-where/
Man For Himself Erich Fromm Pdf
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