Review of Marx and Engels’s ‘German Ideology’ manuscripts : presentation and analysis of the ‘Feuerbach chapter’ by Carver, Terrell and Blank, Daniel

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Warwick Research Archives Portal Repository Original citation: McCabe, Helen (2015) Review of Marx and Engels’s ‘German Ideology’ manuscripts : presentation and analysis of the ‘Feuerbach chapter’ by Carver, Terrell and Blank, Daniel. German Politics, 24 (2). pp. 212-214. Permanent WRAP url: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/75513 Copyright and reuse: The Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP) makes this work by researchers of the University of Warwick available open access under the following conditions. Copyright © and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable the material made available in WRAP has been checked for eligibility before being made available. 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For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: publications@warwick.ac.uk http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk Review of Terrell Carver and Daniel Blank’s Marx and Engels’s ‘German Ideology’ Manuscripts: Presentation and Analysis of the ‘Feuerbach Chapter’ (Houndmills: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014). Helen McCabe University of Warwick Marx and Engels’s ‘German Ideology’ Manuscripts: Presentation and Analysis of the ‘Feuerbach Chapter’ is the second book in the ‘Marx, Engels, and Marxisms’ series. It presents a new English translation of ‘the manuscript fragments misleadingly known as the “chapter” “I. Feuerbach”’, including some previously unpublished manuscript material (Carver and Blank: 2014, 1 and 31). These manuscripts were written by Marx and Engels on folded printers sheets – each ‘sheet’ of manuscript therefore presents four ‘pages’ for writing (Carver and Blank: 2014, 2). After an ‘Analytical Introduction’ and ‘Brief Apparatus Criticus’, the book presents one ‘page’ of these folded printers’ sheets per double-page: each left-hand (verso) page contains a ‘variant-rich’ text, whilst the right-hand (recto) page contains a ‘smooth’ text ‘of the ‘last-hand’ of each author (Carver and Blank: 2014, 1). In some cases, both Marx and Engels wrote in two parallel ‘columns’ – in others, there is only a fragment of a sentence. In order to distinguish between ‘hands’, Engels’ is presented in roman typeface, whilst Marx’s (of which there is substantially less) is rendered in bold. The ‘variant-rich’ pages are not particularly easy to read (though a vast improvement on the famously-illegible manuscripts themselves), and it is rather difficult to get a sense of the overall discussion, even from the ‘smooth’ version, as there is relatively little content per page, and as discussions which refer to a particular thought on one page are often pursued in a different column over several subsequent pages. But perhaps providing an easy reading of the ideas is not the purpose of the book. Carver and Blank hope that this method of presentation means ‘the reader … gains easy access to a collaborative ‘laboratory’ in which Marx and Engels worked actively together’ on answering the questions they found pressing at the time (Carver and Blank: 2014, 1). The aim is to discern ‘what can be learned about the thinking of Marx and Engels as they worked’, rather than to try to ‘construct’ a text which could answer ‘doctrinal’ questions concerning their ‘final … thought’ (Carver and Blank: 2014, 1). Certainly, it is fascinating to see this collaborative working partnership on the page, where Marx and Engels clarify and change their positions regarding the ideas of particular Left-Hegelians both in fairly lengthy exegesis and detailed consideration of the use of particular words, many important instances of which are helpfully highlighted in the ‘Analytical Introduction’ (Carver and Blank: 2014, 1-31). The emphasis placed on spats between Marx and Engels themselves is perhaps exaggerated, particularly as some have argued that ‘Engels was merely an amanuensis taking [Marx’s] dictation’ (Carver and Blank: 2014, 2) (something which also has implications for how much even this project can tell us about the internal workings of their authorial relationship). Furthermore, though it seems true that Engels was a lesser thinker than Marx, this is also potentially over-emphasised, and, after all, also does Marx no favours. The presentation of the manuscript-text is thought-provoking, and there are useful footnotes aiding understanding of editorial marks made by Marx and/or Engels, explaining technical terms, and identifying texts to which the discussion refers (e.g. Carver and Blank: 2014, 260, 267 and 290). At times it seems Marx is simply summarising the discussion in Engels’ hand – at others there is substantial exegesis and development in both hands (e.g. Carver and Blank: 2014, and 16063 and 291). The ideas will, of course, already be familiar to anyone who has read an existing version of The German Ideology, but there will be some surprises (for instance, a note-worthy, though brief, insight into their thoughts on feminism) and potentially productive differences. Overall, this text is probably of most use to serious Marx and Engels scholars (and particularly those interested in Engels independently of Marx) alleviating the need to have recourse to famously difficult manuscripts, or of relying on previous, ‘constructed’, versions of the text. It opens a window onto a fascinating intellectual relationship, and casts some light on many questions concerning this relationship and their thinking, whilst providing stimulating arguments for shifting focus away from their ‘thought’.