Reviews for First lines

The average rating for First lines based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-10-26 00:00:00 Joby Mathews Who would have thought that a lot of second international Polish Socialists from the early 1900s would have such a vibrant philosophical and literary political culture? Awesome book on the life of Kazimierz Krauz a Polish Socialist thinker and activist who died in 1905 whose life in Poland made him think hard about the problems of worker solidarity of socialism and nationalist aspirations of the people of Poland so long abused by the German neighbor to the west and the Russian neighbor to the east. Of course, this was before the disasters of the 30s and 40s but Krauz was ahead of his time and had his antennae tuned to this tension between nationalism and socialism that would leave pockmarks in much of the world and cause turmoil to this day. Excellent biography a thinker who should get more press. 1 like · Like ∙ flag following reviews READING PROGRESS December 23, 2020 - Started Reading December 23, 2020 - Shelved December 24, 2020 - 10.0% December 24, 2020 - 15.0% December 24, 2020 - 55.0% "the inability of Socialists to recognize the power and salience of nationalism was one of the early mistakes or socialists strategists of the early twentieth century second international socialists. Leaving an opportunity for fascists to fill this gap. Neglecting worker's feelings nationalist sentiment was a gaffe that let fascism arise as a competitor for worker loyalty. Kraus recognized this early.," December 24, 2020 - 60.0% December 24, 2020 - 60.0% "Damn ignoring Nationalist sentiment in Central Europe was a big blind spot on the part of second International socialists of the early twentieth century Krausz saw it and thought he could deal with it strategically. A path of the early twentieth century not taken. imagine Socialists dispensing with the fascist problem in its cradle." December 24, 2020 - 60.0% "Imagine if pre-WWI socialists understood in the short term nationalist feeling (in cases of warfever like WWI) could Trump worker solidarity. The strategies socialists could have adopted during WWI and the 1920s could have dealt with nationalist hence fascist challenges before they arose. We could have had a very different twentieth century." December 24, 2020 - 70.0% December 24, 2020 - 75.0% December 24, 2020 - 80.0% December 24, 2020 - 80.0% December 24, 2020 - 85.0% December 24, 2020 - 99.0% December 24, 2020 - Shelved as: biography December 24, 2020 - Shelved as: early-twentieth-century December 24, 2020 - Shelved as: european-history December 24, 2020 - Shelved as: nineteenth-century December 24, 2020 - Shelved as: philosophy December 24, 2020 - Shelved as: politics December 24, 2020 - Finished Reading

Review # 2 was written on 2010-11-16 00:00:00 Edith Clifford I listened to this on audiobook after reading Snyder's Bloodlands. The narrator (Norman Dietz) was great and the biography was thorough, if dry. I'd never heard of Kelles-Krauz, described as a "Polish thinker" (to be described as a "thinker" should probably be a goal) and the intersection of nationalism and Marxism against a backdrop of pre-Soviet revolution caught my attention. Unfortunately, I was out of my league as Snyder goes deeper on the political and national issues of Kelles-Krauz's day more so than the details of the life of the Polish thinker. That's not a knock either; as the title makes it clear what Snyder will focus on. For me though, and I'd assume for others unfamiliar with Polish independence, the role of Russia in late 1800s Poland, and an alphabet soup of political party acronyms, this was a 301 course when I really needed the 101. Snyder's research and scholarship are top notch, but this was too advanced for a neophyte such as myself.