ENGELS DIED TODAY -- BOOK REPORT

[Ralph Dumain <rdumain@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

FRIEDRICH ENGELS: IN MEMORIAM

Today, August 5, is the centenary of Friedrich Engels' death.  The world
has gone on now for exactly one century without Engels.  And look where we
are today.  A few days ago I read FRIEDRICH ENGELS: A BIOGRAPHY by Gustav
Mayer (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1936).  This is neither a scholarly tome
nor a history of ideas, but a dramatic portrait of Engels as a man of
action.  The book does not always give a full historical background behind
all the events which took place, but from reading the book I got a l iving
sense of Engels and Marx and the times they lived through.  From now on I
will be more likely to avoid the temptation to treat their writings as
disembodied philosophical treatises a la Bhaskar.

The author paints a vivid portrait of Engels' character.  He is contrasted
with Marx (p. 48-53).  Engels was more practical than Marx, quicker to
make judgments, and as sure and quick in his writing as he was in action,
where Marx was more hesitant, more nervous and temperamental, less smooth
and facile in expression, but nonetheless a deeper thinker.  Engels was
not only modest but always insisted in Marx's premier importance over his
own.  Marx is reported to have ultimately deeper, less impetuous political
judgment than Engels (p. 96).  Engels was more wont to take life as it
comes and enjoy the goods of this world (p. 104).

I learned much that was new to me.  I did not know that Engels was such a
military and geopolitical genius.  Engels not only had military experience
but steeped himself in military science and apparently had a superb grasp
of it.  Engels was also keen up to the end of his life on geopolitical
considerations of both international and domestic (German) politics, with
much advice on revolutionary tactics to give.  I was also surprised to
learn that Engels was preoccupied toward the end of life with seeking a
strategy for the workers movement to prevent the World War he foresaw and
social patriotism as its virtually inevitable consequence.  The one area
neglected by the book (and Engels?) is the issue of colonialism in Africa
and Asia at the end of the centur y and Germany's role.

I shall look forward to other reading recommendations with an eye towards
Engels as a thinker.  I am not happy with the intellectual treatment of
Engels as a cardboard figure.  And since this is the centenary, I hope we
can pursue, as at least one person has recommended, an examination of
Engels' contributions.  Freddy boy, here's a toast to you.  Lest we
forget.  Lest we forget.



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