PAUL HOLLANDER
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be socialist? Even Raymond Williams talks about "imperialism" as if
the concept would self-evidently and singularly apply only to the
United States and former Western colonial powers, and sees the
world as"... the deadly military confrontation between the imperi–
alist alliance [presumably NATO - P. H. ] and now powerfully
established socialist states ...." although of the latter he adds "most
of these new states not of our own kind of foreseeing or desire." Still
he calls them socialist. Hobsbawm by contrast evinces greater sensi–
tivity to the problems of socialism in practice as he mentions "the
crisis of bureaucratization in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe."
In this and a few other fleeting references, he succeeds at least occa–
sionally to rise above the singularly British concerns of the volume.
Marxism and Beyond
is a collection of eighteen pieces,
some~of
which directly address the most crucial issues in the interpretation
and application of Marxism, while others range over topics which
include the Frankfurt School (an especially outstanding piece),
"Lenin and the Communist International," "Communism and the
American Intellectuals from the Thirties to the Eighties," "A Cri–
tique of Conservatism," "In Defense of the Cold War,
Neither Red Nor
Dead,"
as well as critiques of authors dealing with problems of Marx–
ism, Stalinism, and American society. Such diverse pieces are held
together by an uncommon degree of lucidity, a profound knowledge
of Marxism and political theory in general, and the author's commit–
ment to what are the most important and enduring Western values.
Especially impressive is Hook's capacity to write about abstruse
issues of Marxism without the ponderousness and opaqueness that
attend most similar discussions. A major thrust of the volume and of
the lead essays is the clarification of the divergence between the
Marxism of Marx and that of Lenin, and of the political practices of
all those legitimating their rule by invoking Marx's name in our
times. Hook is particularly insightful and enlightening in explaining
why Marxism has retained and even increased its appeals of late,
notwithstanding its inapplicability to the modern world, its numerous
erroneous predictions and blind spots.
He suggests that "Marxism is a monistic theory that offers an
explanatory key to everything important that occurs in history and
society....
It
provides a never failing answer to the hunger for ex–
planation among those adversely affected by the social process...."
To which one might add: and increasingly also for those not adversely
affected - such as prosperous Western intellectuals - who nonethe–
less also hunger for such explanations and a coherent worldview.
