Accessibility statement

Twentieth-Century Communisms

Module description

The aim of this module is to develop students’ understanding of the complex history, theory and practice of communism, one of the significant ideologies of the twentieth century. The module will examine key concepts in communist thought and explore communism both as an international system and in its varied national forms. The topics will include: Lenin and the state; Stalinism; Trotskyism, Gramsci; Maoism; communism and national liberation movements. Students will be exposed to various interpretations and critiques of this significant twentieth-century phenomenon.

Module objectives

By the end of the module, students should:

(1) understand and be able to compare the key schools of
thought within the communist tradition

(2) be familiar with and able to compare several cases of
communism practice in different parts of the world

(3) be able to compare, contrast and evaluate
different cases

(4) be familiar with the critical debates about communism.

Preliminary reading

Allison Drew. We are no Longer in France: Communists in Colonial Algeria. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014

Allison Drew. Discordant Comrades: Identities and Loyalties on the South African Left Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000, 309 pp. Paperback edition, Pretoria: Unisa, 2002

Ryszard Kapuściński. Imperium 1993

Vladimir Lenin The State and Revolution 1917

Kevin McDermott and Jeremy Agnew The Comintern: A History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin Basingstoke and London: Macmiillan 1996

Stephen A. Smith, ed., Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism Oxford: OUP 2014

Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader Second Edition 1978

Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology 1975

Assessment

This module is assessed by one essay of 4000 words (100% of total mark).

This is a new module for 2015/16

 

 

Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (7 November [O.S. 26 October] 1879 – 21 August 1940), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist