Domenico Losurdo
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Domenico Losurdo (14 November 1941 – 28 June 2018) was an Italian
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
,
essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
,
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
philosopher, and communist politician.


Life and career

Born in
Sannicandro di Bari Sannicandro di Bari ( Barese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. Main sights The main attraction of Sannicandro is the Hohenstaufen-Norman castle, located in the centre of the city. It is composed ...
, Losurdo obtained his doctorate in 1963 from the
University of Urbino The University of Urbino "Carlo Bo" ( it, Università degli Studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo", ''UniUrb'') is an Italian university located in Urbino, a walled hill-town in the region of Marche, located in the north-eastern part of central Italy. The ...
under the guidance of Pasquale Salvucci with a thesis on
Johann Karl Rodbertus Johann Karl Rodbertus (August 12, 1805, Greifswald, Swedish Pomerania – December 6, 1875, Jagetzow), also known as Karl Rodbertus-Jagetzow, was a German economist and socialist and a leading member of the ''Linkes Zentrum'' (centre-left) in ...
. During the sixties, he was radicalized and belonged to a small group of Italian communists which sided with the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
in the
Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Len ...
. Losurdo hailed the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
which was launched in 1966 by
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
in an attempt to purge Chinese society of capitalist and traditionalist elements and which claimed up to 20 million lives. Losurdo was director of the Institute of Philosophical and Pedagogical Sciences at the University of Urbino, where he taught history of philosophy as
dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...
at the Faculty of Educational Sciences. From 1988, Losurdo was president of the
Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
International Association Hegel-Marx for Dialectical Thought. Losurdo was also a member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin (an association in the tradition of
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...
's
Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...
) as well as director of the Marx XXI political-cultural association. Losurdo died on 28 June 2018 at the age of 76 due to brain cancer. From
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
militancy, the condemnation of
American imperialism American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conquest ...
, and the study of the
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
and Native American question, Losurdo was also a participant in national and international politics."Domenico Losurdo"
(in Italian). Blogger. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
Historian David Broder described Losurdo as "already among the most renowned Italian Marxists at the international level, as a richly partisan historian of philosophy ... ." Philosopher Daniel Tutt described Losurdo as "a renowned Marxist historian and philosopher" who "pioneered a distinctive method of historiography and intellectual history." Tutt wrote "Losurdo made his scholarly mark in philosophical works as well as historical studies of important thinkers from John Locke and Hannah Arendt, to biographical and historical studies of Joseph Stalin. His scholarship on Hegel and modernity is considered an exemplary contribution to Hegel scholarship and he has published widely on topics such as conceptions of class struggle throughout history and the evolution of nonviolence in modern political life." A
Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
Azzarà, Stefano G. (January 2019). "Domenico Losurdo 1941–2018, In Memoriam". ''International Critical Thought''. 9 (2): 314–325. . and
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
philosopherLiguori, Guido (1 July 2018)
"Domenico Losurdo, A Marxist Philosopher Against the Current"
Translated by Broder, David. ''Il manifesto''. Retrieved 1 December 2020 – via Verso Books.
as well as historian,Tutt, Daniel (2018)
"Nietzsche in His Time: The Struggle Against Socratism and Socialism"
''Historical Materialism''. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
Losurdo was described as a noncomformist, an heterodox Marxist, and a communist militant. His work ranged from contributions to the study of
Kantian philosophy Kantianism is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The term ''Kantianism'' or ''Kantian'' is sometimes also used to describe contemporary positions in philosophy of mind, ...
(the so-called self-censorship of
Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
and his political
nicodemism A Nicodemite () is a person suspected of publicly misrepresenting their religious faith to conceal their true beliefs. The term is sometimes defined as referring to a Protestant Christian who lived in a Roman Catholic country and escaped persecuti ...
) and the revaluation of classical
German idealism German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionary ...
, especially by
G. W. F. Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
, in an attempt to re-propose the legacy in the wake of
György Lukács György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and ae ...
in particular, as well as the reaffirmation of the interpretation of German and non-German Marxism (
Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a ...
and the brothers
Bertrando {{Infobox racehorse , horsename = Bertrando , image = , caption = , sire = Skywalker , dam = Gentle Hands , damsire = Buffalo Lark , sex = Stallion , foaled = 1989 , country = United States , colour = Dark Bay , breeder = Ed Nahem , ...
and
Silvio Spaventa Silvio Spaventa (12 May 1822 – 20 June 1893) was an Italian journalist, politician and statesman who played a leading role in the unification of Italy, and subsequently held important positions within the newly formed Italian state. Early lif ...
), with incursions into the sphere of Nietzschean thought (the reading of a radical aristocratic
Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
) and Heideggerian thought, in particular the question of
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
's adhesion to
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
. Losurdo's philosophical-political reflection, attentive to the contextualization of philosophical thought in his own historical time, moved in particular from the themes of radical criticism of
liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
,
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
, and
colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
as well as the traditional conception of totalitarianism in the perspective of a defense of
Marxist dialectic Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different Opinion, points of view about a subject but wi ...
s and
historical materialism Historical materialism is the term used to describe Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborat ...
, devoting himself to the study of
anti-revisionism Anti-revisionism is a position within Marxism–Leninism which emerged in the 1950s in opposition to the Khrushchev Thaw, reforms of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Where Khrushchev pursued an interpretation that differed from his predecessor ...
in the
Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
sphere. Losurdo included his works in the
history of ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histor ...
and concerned the investigation of questions of contemporary history and politics, with a constant critical attention to
historical revisionism In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...
and the controversy against the interpretations of
Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...
,
François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...
,
Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...
, and
Ernst Nolte Ernst Nolte (11 January 1923 – 18 August 2016) was a German historian and philosopher. Nolte's major interest was the comparative studies of fascism and communism (cf. Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism). Originally trained in philosophy, he was ...
. In particular, Losurdo has criticized a
reactionary In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...
tendency among contemporary revisionist historians such as Nolte (who traced the impetus behind the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
to the excesses of the Russian Revolution) and Furet (who linked the
Stalinist purges The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
to a "disease" originating from the French Revolution). According to Losurdo, the intention of these revisionists is to eradicate the
revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. ...
tradition as their true motivations have little to do with the search for a greater understanding of the past but rather it lies in both the climate and ideological needs of the political classes and is most evident in the work of the English-speaking imperial revivalists, such as
Niall Ferguson Niall Campbell Ferguson FRSE (; born 18 April 1964)Biography
Niall Ferguson
and Paul Johnson. His 2015 book ''War and Revolution'', published by
Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a left-wing publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of ''New Left Review''. Renaming, new brand and logo Verso Books was originally known as New Left Books. The ...
, provided a new perspective on the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
,
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
,
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, and
anti-colonial Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence m ...
revolutions. Losurdo turned his attention to the political history of modern
German philosophy German philosophy, here taken to mean either (1) philosophy in the German language or (2) philosophy by Germans, has been extremely diverse, and central to both the analytic and continental traditions in philosophy for centuries, from Gottfried W ...
from Kant to
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and the debate that developed in Germany in the second half of the 19th and in the 20th century as well as a reinterpretation of the tradition of
liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
, in particular starting from the criticism and accusations of hypocrisy addressed to
John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...
for his financial participation in the
Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
. Taking up what Arendt stated in her 1951 book ''
The Origins of Totalitarianism ''The Origins of Totalitarianism'', published in 1951, was Hannah Arendt's first major work, wherein she describes and analyzes Nazism and Stalinism as the major totalitarian political movements of the first half of the 20th century. History ...
'', Losurdo argued that the 20th century's true original sin was the
New Imperialism In historical contexts, New Imperialism characterizes a period of colonial expansion by European powers, the United States, and Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Com The period featured an unprecedented pursuit of ove ...
in the form of colonial empire of the late 19th century, where
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
and
internment Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
manifested for the first time. Diego Pautasso wrote that after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, Losurdo "devoted himself to four areas of research: 1) critique of liberalism and the fight against the belief that liberals they were at the forefront of democratic struggles; 2) balance of socialist experiences (USSR, China); 3) criticism of colonialism, imperialism and 'the various forms of subjugation of peoples to Washington and its allies'; 4) the critique of the contemporary left, in particular of 'Western Marxism', which would have 'neglected the great problems of its time', abandoned the 'class struggle and the struggle against imperialism' and embraced 'the narratives of globalization.'" Upon Losurdo's death in 2018, Gianni Fresu wrote that "from the classics of philosophy to the debate around the figure of Stalin; from the analysis of the role of China to historical revisionism; from liberal thinking to the issues of Bonapartism and modern democracy; from the history of Western thought to the problems of colonialism and imperialism ... Losurdo's studies of historical materialism, as well as those of Kant, Hegel, Heidegger and Nietzsche, are a fundamental milestone in the history of ideas and events of human societies, such is their scientific seriousness and intellectual autonomy, their problematic richness and interpretative complexity."


Ideas and research

According to Losurdo, despecification is the exclusion of an
individual An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own Maslow ...
or
group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
from the civilian
community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...
. There are two types of despecification: * Political and moral despecification in which the exclusion is due to
political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
or
moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...
factors. * Naturalistic despecification in which the exclusion is due to
biological factors An environmental factor, ecological factor or eco factor is any factor, abiotic or biotic, that influences living organisms. Abiotic factors include ambient temperature, amount of sunlight, and pH of the water soil in which an organism lives. Bio ...
. For Losurdo, naturalistic despecification is qualitatively worse than the political-moral. While the latter offers at least one escape through the change of
ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
, this is not possible in the case of naturalistic despecification since it is irreversible because it refers to biological factors that are in themselves unchangeable. Unlike many other thinkers, Losurdo thought that
the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
of the
Jewish people Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
is not incomparable and therefore was willing to admit in this case a tragic peculiarity. Losurdo stated that the comparisons he offers about this did not seek to be a relativisation or a belittlement of the Holocaust, but that to consider the Jewish Holocaust as incomparable meant to lose historical perspective and to overlook the Black Holocaust (i.e. the
genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
of
black people Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...
) or the American Holocaust (i.e. the genocide of
Native Americans in the United States Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States ( Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United State ...
through the continued deportation to the west with the
Indian removal Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi Riverspecifically, to a de ...
and diffusion of
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
), as well as other mass exterminations such as the
Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
.Losurdo, Domenico (1999). ''L'ebreo, il nero e l'indio nella storia dell'Occidente'' (in Italian). Urbino: Quattro venti. Losurdo was a strong critic of the equation of
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
and
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
, made by scholars like
François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...
and
Ernst Nolte Ernst Nolte (11 January 1923 – 18 August 2016) was a German historian and philosopher. Nolte's major interest was the comparative studies of fascism and communism (cf. Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism). Originally trained in philosophy, he was ...
but also by
Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...
and
Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...
. Similarly, Losurdo criticized the concept of a Red Holocaust. He argued that in the
Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
there was an explicit homicidal intention because the
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
who entered one was destined not to get out of it (as there is a naturalistic despecification) while in the
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
there was not (as it is political-moral despecification). In the first case, the Nazis imprisoned those whom they regarded as and called ''
Untermensch ''Untermensch'' (, ; plural: ''Untermenschen'') is a Nazi term for non- Aryan "inferior people" who were often referred to as "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mainly ethnic Poles, Serbs, and later also Russians). The ...
'' (subhuman), while in the second case (in which, he claimed, only a part of the dissidents ended up) dissidents were locked up to be re-educated and not to be killed. Despite being a practice to be condemned, Losurdo stated that "the prisoner in the Gulag is a potential 'comrade' he guard was required to call him this... and after 1937 he beginning of the two year long Great Purge following the murder of Sergey Kirov">Great_Purge.html" ;"title="he beginning of the two year long Great Purge">he beginning of the two year long Great Purge following the murder of Sergey Kirov] he is ... a potential 'citizen.'" Taking up the opinion of Primo Levi (who was interned at Auschwitz concentration camp, Auschwitz, according to whom the Gulag was not morally equivalent to the Nazi concentration camps), and against
Soviet dissident Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until ...
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...
(who was interned in Siberia and asserted the equivalence of the exterminationist intent in both the Gulag and Nazi concentration camps), Losurdo maintained that, although it was a disgrace that a
socialist country A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The term ''communist state'' is ofte ...
, born as it is to abolish exploitation, resorted to
imperialist Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
and
capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
systems and methods, the Gulag was more analogous to many Western
concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
(whose governments have supported and claim to be champions of freedom) which in some ways were more akin to the Nazi concentration camps as
death camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
s and not re-educational, taking into consideration the history of the
genocide of indigenous peoples The genocide of indigenous peoples, colonial genocide, or settler genocide is elimination of entire communities of indigenous peoples as part of colonialism. Genocide of the native population is especially likely in cases of settler colonialis ...
. He also argued that
British concentration camps During the Second Anglo-Boer War which lasted from 1899–1902, the British operated concentration camps in South Africa: the term "concentration camp" grew in prominence during that period. The camps had originally been set up by the British Arm ...
and
penal colonies A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...
were worse than any Gulag, accusing politicians such
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
and
Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
of being guilty of war crimes and
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
just like – if not worse than – those attributed to
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
. Losurdo also took a critical view of
Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
and his
nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, cons ...
. Autophobia was a concept developed by Losurdo to describe how sometimes victims tend to appropriate the point of view of their oppressors and begin to despise and hate themselves. The concept of autophobia was primarily developed within the framework of the study of
Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...
and the
history of slavery The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions of en ...
. Losurdo extended this concept to
social class A social class is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the Upper class, upper, Middle class, middle and Working class, lower classes. Membership in a social class can for ...
es and
political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...
that have suffered defeat. Losurdo stated his belief that communists suffer from autophobia, defined as a fear of themselves and their own history, a pathological problem that must be faced, unlike healthy
self-criticism Self-criticism involves how an individual evaluates oneself. Self-criticism in psychology is typically studied and discussed as a negative personality trait in which a person has a disrupted self-identity. The opposite of self-criticism would be ...
. In excerpts from a conference, organized in 2003, to re-evaluate the figure of Stalin fifty years after his death, Losurdo harshly criticized the revelations contained in
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
's "
Secret Speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
". According to Losurdo, Stalin's bad reputation derived not from the crimes committed by the latter – which he compared to others of that time – but from the falsehoods present in the report that Khrushchev read during the
20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship ...
in February 1956. Losurdo gave credit to one of the main accusations that were at the base of the bloody repression against his opponents, i.e. the existence of the "full-bodied reality of the
fifth column A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, "fifth columns" are “domestic actors who work to un ...
" in the Soviet Union ready to ally with the enemy. Losurdo reiterated that he did not want to rehabilitate Stalin, but only to place him in the historical context and present a more neutral analysis of the facts, implementing a revisionism of the general experience of
real socialism Real socialism, better known as actually existing socialism or developed socialism (), was an ideological catchphrase popularized during the Brezhnev era in the Eastern Bloc countries and the Soviet Union.
,Losurdo, Domenico; Giacomini, Riggero, ed. (1999). ''URSS: bilancio di un'esperienza. Atti del Convegno italo-russo. Urbino, 25-26-27 settembre 1997''. Urbino: Quattro venti. . considered as a past to be studied for the purpose of understanding the future dynamics of
socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
.


Political views

Ideologically a
Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
, Losurdo supported the interpretation that
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
gave the plurality to the
class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...
by paying attention to the process of female emancipation and colonized peoples. Losurdo saw the
Chinese economic reform The Chinese economic reform or reform and opening-up (), known in the West as the opening of China, is the program of economic reforms termed " Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "socialist market economy" in the People's Republic of C ...
as a new NEP that "did not undermine its socialist values." Close first to the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
, then to the
Communist Refoundation Party The Communist Refoundation Party ( it, Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, PRC) is a communist political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who replac ...
, and finally to the
Party of Italian Communists The Party of Italian Communists ( it, Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, PdCI) was a communist party in Italy established in October 1998 by splinters from the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC). The split was led by Armando Cossutta, founder and e ...
, confluited in the
Communist Party of Italy The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current ...
and in the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
, of which he was a member, Losurdo was also director of the Marx XXI political-cultural association. Strongly opposed to American interventionism and its
foreign policies A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through mu ...
,
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
, and the
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
, Losurdo contested the awarding of the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
to
Chinese dissident This list consists of activists who are known as Chinese dissidents. The label is primarily applied to intellectuals who "push the boundaries" of society or criticize the policies of the government. Examples of the former include Wei Hui and Jia ...
Liu Xiaobo Liu Xiaobo (; 28 December 1955 – 13 July 2017) was a Chinese writer, literary critic, human rights activist, philosopher and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who called for political reforms and was involved in campaigns to end communist one-par ...
, stating that Liu is an open supporter of
Western colonialism The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turks, and the Arabs. Colonialism in the modern sense began w ...
. Losurdo also took a highly critical view of the European intellectual tradition of
liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
.


Works


''Aristocratic Rebel''

In ''Aristocratic Rebel'' (2002), Losurdo criticized much of Nietzschean thought in the contemporary world, in particular left-Nietzscheanism, whose influence on the left was a major problem because "it hollows out rationalist-oriented socialist thought and praxis and it often leads to an abandoning of universalism in favor of 'spiritual' interpretations of political struggle." This critique came from the application of Nietzsche by Italian leftists such as
Giorgio Colli Giorgio Colli (1917 – 6 January 1979) was an Italian philosopher, philologist and historian. A native of Turin, he taught ancient philosophy at Pisa's university for thirty years; he edited and translated Aristotle's ''Organon'' and Kant's '' Cr ...
and
Gianni Vattimo Gianteresio Vattimo (born 4 January 1936) is an Italian people, Italian philosopher and politician. Biography Gianteresio Vattimo was born in Turin, Piedmont. He studied philosophy under the existentialism, existentialist Luigi Pareyson at the Un ...
, although left-Nietzscheanism is beyond just that setting. Tutt wrote " e must read Losurdo's ''Aristocratic Rebel'' by staying true to his own method, that is, the political context of Losurdo's debates and polemics on the Italian left shape much of his critiques of Nietzschean thought in the contemporary world, especially left-Nietzscheanism." Tutt wrote " ile Losurdo's comments on contemporary left-Nietzscheanism are brief, the convincing portrait of Nietzsche the book details generate ample material by which a new generation of Marxist philosophers and historians can begin to re-visit Nietzsche and the tradition of left-Nietzscheanism in particular."


''Historical Revisionism''

In ''Historical Revisionism'' (1996), Losurdo criticised the
historical revisionism In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...
of authors such as
François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...
and
Ernst Nolte Ernst Nolte (11 January 1923 – 18 August 2016) was a German historian and philosopher. Nolte's major interest was the comparative studies of fascism and communism (cf. Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism). Originally trained in philosophy, he was ...
. Similar to how
Enzo Traverso Enzo Traverso (born 14 October 1957) is an Italian scholar of European intellectual history. He is the author of several books on critical theory, the Holocaust, Marxism, memory, totalitarianism, revolution, and contemporary historiography. His bo ...
spoke of a
Second Thirty Years' War :''This is about the term and historiography. For history of the period see World War I, World War II, etc..'' "Second Thirty Years' War" is a periodization scheme sometimes used to encompass the wars in Europe from 1914 to 1945. Just as the Thirty ...
(1914–1945) following
Arno J. Mayer Arno Joseph Mayer (born June 19, 1926), is an American historian who specializes in modern Europe, diplomatic history, and the Holocaust, and is currently the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Emeritus, at Princeton University. Early life a ...
, Losurdo used the image of the Second Thirty Years War to use as "an expression that historians often use to denote the period of colossal upheavals between 1914 and 1945." Losurdo accused Furet and Nolte for their theory that the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
started the
European Civil War The European Civil War is a concept meant to characterize a series of 19th- and 20th-century conflicts in Europe as segments of an overarching civil war within a supposed European society. The timeframes associated with this European Civil War var ...
in 1917 so that the conflict between
Bolshevism Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, fo ...
and
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
is emphasized and only the former is blamed. In doing so, these revisionist historians omitted two main moments that for Losurdo are indispensable in understanding the Second Thirty Years' War, namely the
total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combata ...
as an experience shared by all those involved in the war and
colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
as a common modern European phenomenon on the other. Losurdo compared
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's struggle for ''
Lebensraum (, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Imperi ...
'' in the East with the acquisition of a German India to the
American frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...
as part of the American conquest to the Pacific. Echoing Traverso, who wrote that "Eastern Europe certainly represented the 'living space' that one wanted to colonize, but this conquest implied the annihilation of the USSR and Bolshevism, a state and an ideology which the Nazis saw as the product of a connection between 'Jewish intelligentsia' and Slavic 'subhumanity.' So this total war was at the same time a war of conquest, a war of race and a colonial war", Losurdo argued that the European Jews got into this colonialist scenario as "Oriental natives", stating: "The fact that the fate of the Jews has been sealed by their double stigmatization as oriental 'natives' and as carriers of oriental Bolshevism is not at all considered."


''Liberalism: A Counter-History''

In '' Liberalism: A Counter-History'' (2005), first published in English in 2011, Losurdo argued that while purporting to emphasise the importance of individual liberty, liberalism has long been marked by its exclusion of people from these rights, resulting in
racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
,
slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, and
genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
. Losurdo asserted that the origins of
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
are to be found in what he views as
colonialist Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
and
imperialist Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
policies of the
Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.
. Losurdo examined the intellectual and political positions of intellectuals on
modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...
. In his view,
Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
and
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...
were the greatest thinkers of modernity, while
Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
was its greatest critic.Losurdo, Domenico (2011). '' Liberalism: A Counter-History''. Verso Books. . ''Liberalism: A Counter-History'' received a number of positive reviews from both academic and popular presses.


''Stalin: History and Critique of A Black Legend''

In ''Stalin: History and Critique of A Black Legend'' (2008), Losurdo stimulated a debate about
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
, about whom he claimed is built a kind of black legend intended to discredit the whole of
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
. Opposed to the
comparison of Nazism and Stalinism Comparison or comparing is the act of evaluating two or more things by determining the relevant, comparable characteristics of each thing, and then determining which characteristics of each are similar to the other, which are different, and t ...
, Losurdo criticized the concept of
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
, especially in the works of
Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...
,
François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...
,
Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...
, and
Ernst Nolte Ernst Nolte (11 January 1923 – 18 August 2016) was a German historian and philosopher. Nolte's major interest was the comparative studies of fascism and communism (cf. Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism). Originally trained in philosophy, he was ...
, among others. Losurdo argued that totalitarianism was a
polysemic Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, a morpheme, a word, or a phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. Polysemy is distinct from ''monosemy'', where a word has a single ...
concept with origins in
Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologian ...
and that applying it to the political sphere required an operation of abstract schematism which makes use of isolated elements of historical reality to place
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and other
fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
regimes, along with the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and other
socialist states Several past and present states have declared themselves socialist states or in the process of building socialism. The majority of self-declared socialist countries have been Marxist–Leninist or inspired by it, following the model of the Sovie ...
, in the dock together, serving the
anti-communism Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
of
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
-era intellectuals rather than reflecting intellectual research.Losurdo, Domenico (2014)
"Towards a Critique of the Category of Totalitarianism"
Retrieved 18 May 2019.
As a
Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
, Losurdo aimed to bring to historical knowledge two elements that are under-represented in Marxist historiography, namely
rational Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reasons. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an abili ...
reflection on the role of great men and rational criticism of the original form of moral leftism, or what Losurdo referred to as the "beautiful soul", which seeks to impose "the law of the heart" and the intelligence of its inevitable authoritarian reversal. For Losurdo, the ferment of
authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political '' status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic vot ...
in the
communist movement The history of communism encompasses a wide variety of ideologies and political movements sharing the core theoretical values of common ownership of wealth, economic enterprise, and property. Most modern forms of communism are grounded at least ...
is to be found more on the
libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
side of the communist utopia than in the
reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eve ...
desire to build a state. Losurdo described his work on Stalin as a history of Stalin's image and not a biography or political history of the system with which his name is commonly associated. According to Losurdo, questioning the clichés of
anti-Stalinism The anti-Stalinist left is an umbrella term for various kinds of left-wing political movements that opposed Joseph Stalin, Stalinism and the actual system of governance Stalin implemented as leader of the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1953. Th ...
and
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
, including in Communist ranks since 1956, required returning to the substance of the question of the evaluation of Soviet history from 1922 to 1953 and even beyond, since the categories of anti-Stalinism and Stalinism have been generalized to the study of other
socialist state A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a Sovereign state, sovereign State (polity), state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The ...
s ruled by
communist parties A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
and other personalities, such as
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
in China and
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
in Cuba. For Losurdo, the study of "the black legend" was partly mixed with a rehabilitation of the personality and the figure of Stalin the statesman, who is clearly distinguished from the political regime. The starting point was the observation that at the time of his death in March 1953, the image of Stalin was rather positive in the world, propaganda on both sides aside. It was the dissemination of the
Khrushchev report "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
that "cast the god into hell." According to Losurdo, it was a document originating in the internal struggle in the leadership of the party, therefore lacking in credibility. Writing for '' il manifesto'', Guido Liguori stated that " s controversial ''Stalin. Storia e critica di una leggenda nera'' was not without its interesting elements. He proposed not so much to ''save'' Stalin (in fact he recognized many of his limits and faults)", but "he also refused to consider Stalin in merely negative terms." Writing for ''
Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...
'', historian David Broder argued that " ile he recognized the exorbitant, paranoid aspects of Stalin's leadership, his efforts to relativize it were often governed by a polemical zeal unjustified by the evidence marshaled. This made his reframing of Stalinism more 'interesting' than necessarily persuasive." The book rendered Losurdo's a polarising view. ''
O Globo ''O Globo'' (, ''The Globe'') is a Brazilian newspaper based in Rio de Janeiro. ''O Globo'' is the most prominent print publication in the Grupo Globo media conglomerate. Founded by journalist Irineu Marinho, owner of ''A Noite'', it was orig ...
'' summarized that Losurdo has been " aised for his criticism of liberalism by some, and accused of Stalinism by others. ... From liberals to the far left, everyone has an adjective on the tip of their tongue (or fingers) to refer to Caetano's new favorite author: Stalinist, revolutionary, farcical, anti-imperialist, revisionist. For some, the Italian was a champion of socialism who denied the farces propagated by liberalism. For others, he was a defender of the crimes of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) and of Chinese authoritarianism." ''O Globo'' wrote that Losurdo compared the crimes of Stalin with those of liberalism (genocides sponsored by capitalist nations, concentration camps maintained by the colonial powers, and war crimes) and argued that in the end it is the liberals who have the dirtiest or worst track record.Sousa Gabriel, Ruan (18 September 2020)
"Quem é Domenico Losurdo, o filósofo italiano que encantou Caetano Veloso"
''O Globo'' (in Portuguese). Retrieved 26 December 2020.
A review written in April 2009 by Guido Liguori in '' Liberazione'' (the official organ of the
Communist Refoundation Party The Communist Refoundation Party ( it, Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, PRC) is a communist political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who replac ...
) of his book, in which Losurdo criticized the demonisation of Stalin carried out by the predominant historiography and tried to remove it from what he calls "the black legend about him", was at the center of a controversy within the drafting of the aforementioned review. A storm of protests ensued when around twenty editors sent a letter of protest to the editor of the newspaper in which they criticized both Losurdo's attempt at Stalin's rehabilitation in his book and Liguori's review (judged to be too positive with respect to the book) as well as with the choice of the editor of the newspaper to publish said review. The book was criticized for its claims, and the methodology used, by
Valerio Evangelisti Valerio Evangelisti (20 June 1952 – 18 April 2022) was an Italian writer of science fiction, fantasy, historical novels, and horror. He is known mainly for his series of novels featuring the inquisitor Nicolas Eymerich and for the Nostradamu ...
, , Niccolò Pianciola, and Andrea Romano.Evangelisti, Valerio (14 April 2009)
"Domenico Losurdo: Stalin. Storia e critica di una leggenda nera"
(in Italian). ''Carmilla on line''. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
Losurdo's view that
purge In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...
s were legitimate because of the "permanent state of exception caused by imperialist intervention and siege", with Liguori summarising Losurdo's argument that "the harshness of his leadership was due to the Western powers' intrigues and the existence of a powerful 'Fifth Column' within the USSR of the 1930s" and a continuation of the
Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
, described as being imposed by imperialism, were criticized as being a defence of the
Stalinist purges The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
by Cicero AraujoAraujo, Cicero (February 2012)
"O stalinismo recauchutado de Domenico Losurdo"
(in Portuguese). ''Revista Fevereiro'' (4). Retrieved 26 December 2020.
and Mario Maestri.Cotrim, Felipe; Velloso, Gustavo (22 August 2020)
"A miséria do negacionismo histórico"
''A terra é redonda''. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
Losurdo's work has been praised by
Grover Furr Grover Carr Furr III (born April 3, 1944) is an American professor of Medieval English literature at Montclair State University. He is widely regarded as a historical revisionist, and has published numerous revisionist books and papers about So ...
, who started a mutual friendship with Losurdo, whom Furr praised especially for his 2008 book on Stalin. Losurdo continued to cooperate with Furr, introducing him to an Italian publisher who published the Italian translation of Furr's book ''Khruschev Lied'' in 2016, with Losurdo's introduction. Additionally, Losurdo wrote a blurb for the back-cover of Furr's 2013 book ''The Murder of Sergei Kirov'' and an introduction to the book which remains unpublished.


''Western Marxism''

In ''Western Marxism'', Losurdo outlined a split between
Western Marxism Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an int ...
and Eastern Marxism. Losurdo criticized Western Marxism for "hav ng'neglected the great problems of its time', abandoning the 'class struggle and the struggle against imperialism', and embracing 'the narratives of globalization.'"


Controversy and debate

The book about Stalin caused some controversy and debate internationally, especially in Brazil and Germany, with critics such as Marxist historian labelling Losurdo "a
neo-Stalinist Neo-Stalinism (russian: Неосталинизм) is the promotion of positive views of Joseph Stalin's role in history, the partial re-establishing of Stalin's policies on certain issues and nostalgia for the Stalin period. Neo-Stalinism over ...
." Professor Araujo Cicero wrote that Losurdo "recognizes 'tragedy and horror' from the years when the Soviet Union was led by Stalin" but accused Losurdo's work of being a defence of "the main decisions
talin Talin may refer to: Places *Talin, Armenia, a city *Tálín, a municipality and village in the Czech Republic *Tallinn, capital of Estonia *Talin, Iran, a village in West Azerbaijan Province *Talin, Syria, a village in Tartus Governorate Other *Ta ...
made over the almost thirty years he was at the head of the country after Lenin's death." Historian Mario Maestri wrote that " ch of the reference and support bibliography used by Losurdo consists of revisionist, denialist and openly conservative and anti-communist authors and/or researchers ... of questionable reputation", citing ''
The Black Book of Communism ''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression'' is a 1997 book by Stéphane Courtois, Andrzej Paczkowski, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Margolin, and several other European academics documenting a history of political repression by co ...
'' and
Curzio Malaparte Curzio Malaparte (; 9 June 1898 – 19 July 1957), born Kurt Erich Suckert, was an Italian writer, filmmaker, war correspondent and diplomat. Malaparte is best known outside Italy due to his works ''Kaputt'' (1944) and ''La pelle'' (1949). The f ...
as examples. Author does not consider these accusations tenable, as Losurdo did not in any way deny the crimes during the Stalin era and described them in detail. The publication on the communist newspaper '' Liberazione'' of a positive review by Guido Liguori on Losurdo's book about Stalin caused a crisis in the paper's editorial staff: twenty journalist wrote a letter to the editor Dino Greco, criticizing what they perceived as Losurdo's attempts at Stalin's rehabilitation, alongside Liguori's review (which they perceived as too positive) and Greco's decision to publish it. Losurdo's work was also derided by Italian liberal journalist Andrea Romano, who accused Losurdo and
Luciano Canfora Luciano Canfora (; born 5 June 1942) is an Italian classicist and historian. Born in Bari, Canfora obtained his first degree in Roman History in 1964 at Pisa University. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Bari. His ...
of "trying to create a harmless Stalinism". About Losurdo's work on Stalin, Cicero wrote that " like the typical old-time Stalinist, Losurdo does not evade a series of crimes committed by the regime and its dictator, nor does it qualify them simply as 'mistakes'. Also unlike the classic Stalinist, the author is not concerned with showing the coherence of his practices with Marxism or Leninism." Cicero further stated "it is the ability and perspicacity to face realistically the great problems of your country and its time – even against the most ingrained beliefs and utopias of your former travel companions – that the book seeks to highlight. In spite of all the barbarities committed, Stalin and his regime leave their multifaceted assessment with a positive balance." Cicero argued that this was not because "they knew how to build possible socialism, the famous 'socialism in one country", but "for the simple reason that they managed to build a state and a society sufficiently vertebrate to face the chaos of the Russian 'second period of disorder' and the European 'second war of the thirties', with its most deadly by-product (Nazism), were it not for that tremendous endeavor, albeit a bloody one, it was destined to destroy the Slavic nations to the east." Cicero wrote that "Stalin and Stalinism are, in short, defended for reasons to which any admirer of State-building as a good in itself, regardless of its ideological purposes and justifications, should surrender. 'Socialism in one country' becomes, in this sense, just a formula that the dictator and his supporters improvised to fit this elementary task to the language that was understandable to them." Bernardo Vargaftiq of ''Esquerda Online'' praised Losurdo for '' Liberalism: A Counter-History'' and his work on capitalism, colonialism, and liberalism, stating that "books like 'The Counterhistory of Liberalism' are positive, exposing liberalism ... in an energetic and very well documented way" and " e examples given by Losurdo of the extreme reactionary nature of so-called liberals, including people often cited laudably, such as Toqueville, are edifying." While stating that "reading these books on Liberalism and Bonapartism is useful to historians and Marxists in general, they illustrate the history of capitalism in very convincing detail", Vargaftiq referred to Losurdo as a "neo-Stalinist chic", and criticized him for making a nationalist rather than Marxist analysis, for supporting the fifth column theory, and in general for his dismissive views of
Trotskyism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
.Vargaftiq, Bernardo (13 September 2020)
"Losurdo e o neostalinismo chique"
''Esqerda Online'' (in Portuguese). Retrieved 26 December 2020. "It is an elegant defense of a 'chic' neo-Stalinism, but a total abandonment of Marxism, which, while not deterministic as it incorporates superstructural influences, clearly indicates that it is the class analysis that allows us to understand social evolution (in this case, the regression). On the other hand, it is interesting to note that Losurdo's Marxism ceases when he examines the figure of Stalin and the political and social developments of the 1990s."
About Losurdo's work on
Western Marxism Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an int ...
, Marxist historian Mario Maestri wrote that this is "a false split and a false controversy", and accused Losurdo of replacing "the proletarian internationalism and class struggles of the 'Western Marxists' with the unified nation – that is, bourgeoisie and united proletarians – in the name of national developmentalism – as if development, as well as science and technology, were ideologically neutral and not dictated by the interests of the dominant versus the dominated classes." Maestri, who defends the thesis "we live in a historical counterrevolutionary phase", whose "milestones were the capitalist restoration in China in 1978 under the leadership of reformer Deng Xiaoping and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992 – events that consolidated the globalization of capitalism", accused Losurdo of presenting "an apology for the capitalism of the Chinese Communist Party and its many business projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America", establishing this "as the only alternative for its economic development and the only way for the emancipation of European and American imperialism." According to Maestri, Losurdo defended that "the working classes of the countries on the periphery of the capital – Asia, Africa and Latin America – give up their political independence and pragmatically ally themselves with the capitalism of the Chinese CP."


See also

*
Marxist historiography Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided soci ...
*
Marxist philosophy Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fro ...


References


Bibliography

* ''Autocensura e compromesso nel pensiero politico di Kant'', Napoli, Bibliopolis, 1983. * ''Hegel. Questione nazionale, restaurazione. Presupposti e sviluppi di una battaglia politica Domenico Giammarco'', Urbino, Università degli Studi, 1983. * ''Tra Hegel e Bismarck. La rivoluzione del 1848 e la crisi della cultura tedesca'', Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1983. . * ''György Lukács nel centenario della nascita, 1885–1985'', a cura di e con Pasquale Salvucci e Livio Sichirollo, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1986. * ''Marx e i suoi critici'', a cura di e con Gian Mario Cazzaniga e Livio Sichirollo, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1987. . * ''La catastrofe della Germania e l'immagine di Hegel'', Milano, Guerini, 1987. . * ''Metamorfosi del moderno. Atti del Convegno. Cattolica, 18-20 settembre 1986'', a cura di e con Gian Mario Cazzaniga e Livio Sichirollo, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1988. . * ''Hegel, Marx e la tradizione liberale. Libertà, uguaglianza, Stato'', Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1988. . * ''Tramonto dell'Occidente? Atti del Convegno organizzato dall'Istituto italiano per gli studi filosofici e dalla Biblioteca comunale di Cattolica. Cattolica, 19-21 maggio 1988'', a cura di e con Gian Mario Cazzaniga e Livio Sichirollo, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1989. . * ''Antropologia, prassi, emancipazione. Problemi del marxismo'', a cura di e con Georges Labica e Jacques Texier, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1990. . * ''Égalité-inégalité. Atti del Convegno organizzato dall'Istituto italiano per gli studi filosofici e dalla Biblioteca comunale di Cattolica. Cattolica, 13-15 settembre 1989'', a cura di e con Alberto Burgio e Jacques Texier, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1990. * ''Prassi. Come orientarsi nel mondo. Atti del convegno organizzato dall'Istituto Italiano per gli Studi filosofici e dalla Biblioteca Comunale di Cattolica (Cattolica, 21-23 settembre 1989)'', a cura di e con Gian Mario Cazzaniga e Livio Sichirollo, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1991. . * ''La comunità, la morte, l'Occidente. Heidegger e l'ideologia della guerra'', Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1991. . * ''Massa folla individuo. Atti del Convegno organizzato dall'Istituto italiano per gli studi filosofici e dalla Biblioteca comunale di Cattolica. Cattolica, 27-29 settembre 1990'', a cura di e con Alberto Burgio e Gian Mario Cazzaniga, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1992. . * ''Hegel e la libertà dei moderni'', Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1992. ; Napoli, La scuola di Pitagora, 2011. * ''Rivoluzione francese e filosofia classica tedesca'', a cura di, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1993. . * ''Democrazia o bonapartismo. Trionfo e decadenza del suffragio universale'', Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1993. . * ''Marx e il bilancio storico del Novecento'', Gaeta, Bibliotheca, 1993; Napoli, La scuola di Pitagora, 2009. . * ''Gramsci e l'Italia. Atti del Convegno internazionale di Urbino, 24-25 gennaio 1992'', a cura di e con Ruggero Giacomini e Michele Martelli, Napoli, La città del sole, 1994. * ''La seconda Repubblica. Liberismo, federalismo, postfascismo'', Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1994. . * ''Autore, attore, autorità'', a cura di e con Alberto Burgio, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1996. . * ''Il revisionismo storico. Problemi e miti'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1996. . * ''Utopia e stato d'eccezione. Sull'esperienza storica del socialismo reale'', Napoli, Laboratorio politico, 1996. * ''Ascesa e declino delle repubbliche'', a cura di e con Maurizio Viroli, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1997. . * ''Lenin e il Novecento. Atti del Convegno internazionale di Urbino, 13-14-15 gennaio 1994'', a cura di e con Ruggero Giacomini, Napoli, La città del sole, 1997. . * ''Metafisica. Il mondo Nascosto'', con altri, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1997. . * ''Antonio Gramsci dal liberalismo al «Comunismo critico»'', Roma, Gamberetti, 1997. . * ''Dai fratelli Spaventa a Gramsci. Per una storia politico-sociale della fortuna di Hegel in Italia'', Napoli, La città del sole, 1997. . * ''Hegel e la Germania. Filosofia e questione nazionale tra rivoluzione e reazione'', Milano, Guerini, 1997. . * ''Nietzsche. Per una biografia politica'', Roma, Manifestolibri, 1997. . * ''Il peccato originale del Novecento'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1998. . * ''Dal Medio Oriente ai Balcani. L'alba di sangue del secolo americano'', Napoli, La città del sole, 1999. . * ''Fondamentalismi. Atti del Convegno organizzato dall'Istituto italiano per gli studi filosofici e dalla Biblioteca comunale di Cattolica. Cattolica 11-12 ottobre 1996'', a cura di e con Alberto Burgio, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1999. . * ''URSS: bilancio di un'esperienza. Atti del Convegno italo-russo''. Urbino, 25-26-27 settembre 1997, a cura di e con Ruggero Giacomini, Urbino, Quattro venti, 1999. . * ''L'ebreo, il nero e l'indio nella storia dell'Occidente'', Urbino, Quattro venti, 1999. * ''Fuga dalla storia? Il movimento comunista tra autocritica e autofobia'', Napoli, La città del sole, 1999. ; poi ''Fuga dalla storia? La rivoluzione russa e la rivoluzione cinese oggi'', 2005. . * ''La sinistra, la Cina e l'imperialismo'', Napoli, La città del sole, 2000. . * ''Universalismo e etnocentrismo nella storia dell'Occidente'', Urbino, Quattro venti, 2000. * ''La comunità, la morte, l'Occidente. Heidegger e l'«ideologia della guerra»'', Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2001. . * ''Nietzsche, il ribelle aristocratico. Biografia intellettuale e bilancio critico'', Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2002. . * ''Cinquant'anni di storia della repubblica popolare cinese. Un incontro di culture tra Oriente e Occidente. Atti del Convegno di Urbino, 8-9 giugno 2001'', a cura di e con Stefano G. Azzara, Napoli, La città del sole, 2003. . * ''Dalla teoria della dittatura del proletariato al gulag?'', in:
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...