Rehabilitate Marx!

The Czechoslovak Party Intelligentsia and Post-Stalinist Modernity

This important study of post-Stalinist thought between the mid-1950s and 1968 in Czechoslovakia considers it as a coherent intellectual space overcoming the limitations of orthodox Marxism. Through its recovery of reflexivity and mediation, Rehabilitate Marx! articulates a concept of universal humanity that ultimately failed by narrowing it into the nation and modernity. A valuable contribution to the legacy of Marxism through a detailed and analytical history of one of its most important periods.
Ian H. Angus, professor emeritus, Simon Fraser University

Rehabilitate Marx! conceptualizes new forms of socialist modernity during the post-Stalinist era, in the second half of the 1950s and 1960s. After the demise of Stalinism, Czechoslovak intellectuals within the Communist Party realized that the primary challenge they were facing wasn’t merely the further development of socialism, which would lead to communism: they would need to reformulate the entire socialist project. These intellectuals gradually abandoned the Marxist orthodoxy of their time and began searching for new interpretations of classic Marxist works that would provide an adequate conceptual framework for addressing contemporary problems. Mervart and Růžička present post-Stalinist thought as an autonomous sphere, showing a world of varying socialist visions.

360 Pages, 6 x 9 in.

October, 2025

isbn : 9780822948803

about the authors

Jan Mervart

Jan Mervart

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Jan Mervart
Jiří Růžička

Jiří Růžička

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Jiří Růžička