Musto Marcello - The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography

THE LAST YEARS OF KARL MARX, 18811883

AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY

Marcello Musto

Translated by Patrick Camiller

Stanford University Press

Stanford, California

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Stanford, California

English translation 2020 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.

The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography was originally published in Italian in 2016 under the title Lultimo Marx, 18811883. Saggio di biografia intellettuale. 2016, Donzelli Editore.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Musto, Marcello, author. | Camiller, Patrick, translator.

Title: The last years of Karl Marx, 18811883: an intellectual biography / Marcello Musto; translated by Patrick Camiller.

Other titles: Lultimo Marx. English

Description: Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2020. | Translation of: Lultimo Marx. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019041945 (print) | LCCN 2019041946 (ebook) | ISBN 9781503610583 (cloth) | ISBN 9781503612525 (paperback) | ISBN 9781503612532 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Marx, Karl, 18181883. | CommunistsBiography. | LCGFT: Biographies.

Classification: LCC HX39.5 .M9813 2020 (print) | LCC HX39.5 (ebook) | DDC 335.4092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041945

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041946

Cover photo: Karl Marx, 1882. Alamy.

Cover design: Rob Ehle

Text design: Kevin Barrett Kane

Typeset at Stanford University Press in 11/14 Minion Pro

Dedicated to Babak.

In the Foxhole, in the Clinique, or wherever the next will be. Come rain or come shine.

CONTENTS

NOTE ON SOURCES

Marxs writings have generally been quoted from the 50-volume Karl Marx / Frederick Engels: Collected Works (MECW), Moscow / London / New York: Progress Publishers / Lawrence and Wishart / International Publishers, 19752005. In a few cases, the reader is referred to single works translated into English but not included in MECW. When necessary, translations have been modified to conform more closely to the original German. Texts that have not yet been translated into English are referenced to the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA2), Berlin: Dietz / Akademie / De Gruyter, 1975... , of which 67 of the originally planned 114 volumes have so far appeared in print.

In the notes and the bibliography, the references to Marxs writing have been given in German as well as English, drawn from the 44-volume Marx-Engels-Werke (MEW), Berlin: Dietz, 19561968, when available, otherwise from the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA2) or from individual works still not published in the latter.

Finally, Marxs still-unpublished manuscripts are indicated according to their location in either the International Institute of Social History (IISH) of Amsterdam or the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) of Moscow, where they are kept.

As regards the secondary literature, quotations from books and articles not published in English have been translated for the present volume. Sometimes the translations of English-language editions of books originally published in other languages have been modified to conform more closely to the original.

All the names of journals and newspapers have been given first in English, followed by the original in square brackets. The names of political parties and organizations have been treated in the same way. The birth and death dates of authors and historical figures have been provided the first time they are mentioned. A question mark between parenthesis (?) is used where such dates are unknown.

NOTE ON THE ENGLISH EDITION

First published in September 2016 by Donzelli Editore, Rome, with the title Lultimo Marx, 18811883. Saggio di biografia intellettuale, this book aroused considerable interest among readers of Marx and is now being made available in English.

The original Italian edition, printed in 2,000 copies and complemented by an e-book, quickly sold out and was reprinted in January 2017. Subsequently, after another reprint, it appeared in the form of a print-on-demand option.

The first translations of the book came out shortly afterwards. In 2018, on the occasion of the bicentenary of Marxs birth, the present volume appeared in five languages. The first, with a print run of 1,000, was brought out in Tamil by the long-established Chennai publisher New Century Book House Private Limited. A few months later, Boitempo in Sao Paulo followed with a Portuguese edition in a print run of 4,000; and within a few weeks of that, Sanzini in Busan published a Korean edition of 1,000 copiesreprinted in 2019and VSA in Hamburg a German edition of 2,000 copies. Before the end of 2018, the book had also been translated into Japanese by Horinouchi in Tokyo, in a 500-page volume, with a print run of 2,000 copies, that also contained a Japanese version of my recent Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).

As of 2019, the volume had been translated into two more languages: Arabic, 1,000 copies, by Al Maraya in Cairo; and Farsi, initially 1,000 copies quickly followed by three reprints, by Cheshme in Tehran. At the beginning of 2020, four more editions were published: a Spanish edition from Siglo XXI, Mexico City, in 2,000 copies; a Hindi edition, by Samvad, New Delhi, in 1,000 copies; and a Portuguese edition, by Parsifal, Lisbon, in 1,500 copies. An Indonesian versionwhich, like the Japanese, also contains Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the Internationalwas published by Marjin Kiri in South Tangerang, Indonesia.

This English edition, which includes new sections and some changes from the original Italian, follows a long series of translations and reprintings. It also precedes the Turkish translation with Yordam Kitap, the Chinese translation with Peoples Publishing House, the Catalan translation with Tigre de Paper, a new Italian enlarged edition, as well as a French translation to appear soon.

In three years since its first publication, the book presented here to English-language readers has been reviewed in many newspapers and journals, in a considerable number of countries.

The author would like to thank Patrick Camiller for his excellent translation, Enrico Campo for his help in completing the references and bibliography, and Emma Willert for the preparation of the index.

Marcello Musto

NAPLES, JANUARY 2020

INTRODUCTION

Perhaps one socialist in a thousand

has ever read any of Marxs economic writings,

and of a thousand anti-Marxists

not even one has read Marx.

1. MARXS FINAL LABORS AND THEIR POLITICAL RELEVANCE TODAY

For more than a decade now, prestigious newspapers and journals with a wide readership have been describing Karl Marx as a far-sighted theorist whose topicality receives constant confirmation. Many authors with progressive views maintain that his ideas continue to be indispensable for anyone who believes it is necessary to build an alternative to capitalism. Almost everywhere, he is now the theme of university courses and international conferences. His writings, reprinted or brought out in new editions, have reappeared on bookshop shelves, and the study of his work, after twenty years or more of neglect, has gathered increasing momentum. The years 2017 and 2018 have brought further intensity to this Marx revival, thanks to many initiatives around the world linked to the 150th anniversary of the publication of