Published more than twenty years ago, Stephen Eric Bronner's bold
defense of socialism remains a seminal text for our time. Treating
socialism as an ethic, reinterpreting its core categories, and
critically confronting its early foundations, Bronner's work offers a
reinvigorated "class ideal" and a new perspective for progressive
politics in the twentieth century.
Socialism Unbound is an extraordinary work of political history that
revisits the pivotal figures of the labor movement: Karl Marx, Friedrich
Engels, Karl Kautsky, Vladimir Lenin, and Rosa Luxemburg. Examining
their contributions as well as their flaws, Bronner shows how critical
innovation gave way to dogma. New practical problems have arisen, and
this volume engages with the relationship between class and social
movements, institutional accountability and democratic participation,
economic justice and market imperatives, and internationalism and
identity. With a foreword by Dick Howard and a new introduction by the
author, Bronner's classic study remains indispensable for scholars and
activists alike.