Overview

In this first full-length biography of Alexander Bogdanov, James D. White traces the intellectual development of this key socialist thinker, situating his ideas in the context of the Russian revolutionary movement. He examines the part Bogdanov played in the origins of Bolshevism, his role in the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and his conflict with Lenin, which lasted into Soviet times. The book examines in some detail Bogdanov's intellectual legacy, which, though deliberately obscured and distorted by his adversaries, was considerable and is of lasting significance. Bogdanov was an original and influential interpreter of Marx. He had a mastery of many spheres of knowledge, this expertise being employed in writing his chief theoretical work Tectology, which anticipates modern systems theory. See inside the book.

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As a revolutionary whose vision rivaled Vladimir Lenin's and a thinker who laid the foundations for systems theory, Alexander Bogdanov has merited greater attention from biographers than he has so far received. James D. White's biography of him remedies this neglect [...] The book will be a valuable addition to research university libraries. - Barbara Allen, La Salle University, in: The Russian Review 78/4 (2019) With Red Hamlet, The Life and Ideas of Alexander Bogdanov, James D. White [explores] the life of one of the [Russian Revolution's] most original and influential thinkers, Alexander Bogdanov... In seeking not only to explore Bogdanov's life but to reconstruct his unique and intricate system of thinking, White sets himself an ambitious goal... as a comprehensive catalogue of Bogdanov's works the study will be a useful addition to the reading list of both scholars and students of the Russian Revolution. - Iva Glisic, in: Europe-Asia Studies 72/1 (2020)

As a revolutionary whose vision rivaled Vladimir Lenin's and a thinker who laid the foundations for systems theory, Alexander Bogdanov has merited greater attention from biographers than he has so far received. James D. White's biography of him remedies this neglect [...] The book will be a valuable addition to research university libraries. - Barbara Allen, La Salle University, in: The Russian Review 78/4 (2019) With Red Hamlet, The Life and Ideas of Alexander Bogdanov, James D. White [explores] the life of one of the [Russian Revolution's] most original and influential thinkers, Alexander Bogdanov... In seeking not only to explore Bogdanov's life but to reconstruct his unique and intricate system of thinking, White sets himself an ambitious goal... as a comprehensive catalogue of Bogdanov's works the study will be a useful addition to the reading list of both scholars and students of the Russian Revolution. - Iva Glisic, in: Europe-Asia Studies 72/1 (2020) As the first comprehensive English-language biography of Bogdanov, Red Hamlet is a welcome addition to the literature on Russian Marxism. While no new archival materials are unearthed for this volume, the author musters an exhaustive list of rare Russian publications (as well as secondary literatures in five languages) to paint a compelling picture of a long-neglected Bolshevik. - Nicholas Bujalski, in: Marx and Philosophy Review of Books (2021) [Full review]

As a revolutionary whose vision rivaled Vladimir Lenin's and a thinker who laid the foundations for systems theory, Alexander Bogdanov has merited greater attention from biographers than he has so far received. James D. White's biography of him remedies this neglect [...] The book will be a valuable addition to research university libraries. - Barbara Allen, La Salle University, in: The Russian Review 78/4 (2019)

Author Information

James D. White is Honorary Professor in the Department of Central and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow, UK. He is the author of Marx and Russia: The Fate of a Doctrine (Bloomsbury, 2018), Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution (Macmillan, 2001), Karl Marx and the Intellectual Origins of Dialectical Materialism (Palgrave, 1996) and The Russian Revolution 1917-1921 (Edward Arnold, 1994).

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