The Letters Of Rosa Luxemburg
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The most comprehensive collection of letters by Rosa Luxemburg ever published in English, this book includes 190 letters written to leading figures in the European and international labor and socialist movements––Leo Jogiches, Karl Kautsky, Clara Zetkin and Karl Liebknecht––who were among her closest friends, lovers and colleagues. Much of this correspondence appears for the first time in English translation; all of it helps to illuminate the inner life of this iconic revolutionary, who was at once an economic and social theorist, a political activist and a lyrical stylist. Her political concerns are revealed alongside her personal struggles within a socialist movement that was often hostile to independently minded women. This collection will provide readers with a newer and deeper appreciation of Luxemburg as a writer and historical figure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In spite of her identity as a Polish Jew, Communist activist Luxemburg (1871 1919) used her singular personality to immerse herself in party organization even as she shaped the movement's message through her editing, orating, and tireless campaigning. A cofounder of the German Communist Party, Luxemburg expressed unfailing passion in her letters (supplemented here by substantial footnotes), revealing her personal sacrifices even while chastising colleagues who failed her. Among these were lovers addressed in early na ve, love-torn letters. Later, lengthy missives expressed well-considered economic and political stances, referring to her published works, and her censored letters, sent while imprisoned for agitation against WWI and insulting the Prussian king, exhibit delicacy when discussing the safe subjects of botany, wild birds, and her beloved cat, Mimi. Using her extensive information network two decades before WWII, Luxemburg accurately predicted the "pogroms against Jews in Germany." This volume gives personal insight into a remarkable (and controversial) woman, who was assassinated at age 47, and adds meaningful context to any study of early Western socialism.
